SERMONS t'*" - 



ON THE 



HIGHER LIFE. 



BY THE 



REV. LEWIS R. DUNN, D. D., 

AUTHOR OF "THE MISSION OF THE SPIRIT," "HOLINESS TO THE LORD," "THE 
ANGELS OF GOD," "GARDEN OF SPICES," ETC. 



WITH 

AN INTRODUCTION BY BISHOP SIMPSON. 



CINCINNATI : 
WALDEN AND STOWE, 

NEW YORK: PHILLIPS & HUNT. 
1882. 



I THE LIBRARY 
gOf CONGRESS 

Is 



WASHIHGTOMl 



Copyright by 
WALDEN AND STOWE, 
1882. 



PREFACE. 



The most of the sermons composing this vol- 
ume have been preached at the great camp-meetings 
held within the last twelve years in various sections 
of the country — at Vineland, in New Jersey; at 
Manheim, in Pennsylvania ; at Round Lake, New 
York ; Hamilton, Mass. ; Old Orchard, in Maine ; 
Des Plaines, Illinois; Landisville, Pennsylvania; 
Oakington, Maryland ; Urbana, Ohio ; Denville, 
New Jersey ; Sing-Sing, New York ; and Thousand 
Island Park, New York. Some of the sermons 
have been published, in part, with the proceedings 
of these camp-meetings, or in the daily and weekly 
papers of the localities in which they were preached. 
Very many instances have been brought to the 
knowledge of the author of the benediction which 
these sermons have been made to precious souls, in 
their awakening, illumination, consecration, and en- 
tire sanctification. These sermons appear here sub- 
stantially as they were preached, although they were 
not originally written with the design of publica- 
tion. Several tilings have encouraged the author 
to put these sermons in a permanent form, — the 
favor which the Lord gave them when they were 



II 



PREFACE. 



preached, the wishes of friends to see them in print, 
the fact that there is no volume of sermons spe- 
cifically upon "The Higher Life" in our literature 
either in England or America, and his earnest de- 
sire that they may keep on proclaiming a free and 
a full salvation, long after the lips which uttered 
them have been silent in death. The author trusts 
that these reasons will be deemed sufficient by the 
Christian public, and that a richer and more per- 
manent blessing may attend the printed words than 
was vouchsafed to them when they were preached. 

LEWIS E. DUNN. 

Elim Home, * 
Elizabeth, New Jersey, 1882. 



TEXTS OF SERMONS. 



PAGE. 

I Called to be Saints 7 

" Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth, to them that 
are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints." (1 Corin- 
thians i, 2.) 

II Consecration 29 

" Who, then, is willing to consecrate his service this day unto 
the Lord?" (1 Chron. xxix, 5.) 

III Sanctified through the Truth 54 

" Sanctify them through thy truth : thy Word is truth. As 
thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent 
them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify my- 
self, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." 
(John xvii, 17-19.) 

IV Cleansed by the Blood 68 

" The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 
(1 John i, 7.) 

V The Power of the Holy Ghost 88 

" But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come 
upon you ; and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Je- 
rusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the 
uttermost part of the earth." (Acts i, 8.) 

VI Perfect Love. . . • 108 

" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." (Matt, xxii, 37.) 

VII Full Redemption 125 

" But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto 
us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and re- 
demption ; that, according as it is written, he that glo- 
rieth, let him glory in the Lord." (1 Cor. i, 30, 31.) 

hi 



IV 



TEXTS OF SERMONS. 



PAGE. 



VIII 



The Transforming Vision, 



141 



" But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory 
of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory 
to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord/' (2 Cor. iii. 18.) 



" Awake, awake : put on thy strength, O Zion ; put on thy 
beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the Holy City; for 
henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncir- 
cumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust ; 
arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem ; loose thyself from the 
bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion." (Isaiah 
lii, I, 2.) 

X. . . • The Kest of Faith. . . 179 

"For we which have believed do enter into rest; as he said, 
As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my 
rest : although the works were finished from the founda- 
tion of the world," etc. (Heb. iv, 3-9.) 

XI God's Will in Earth and Heaven 195 

" Thy will be done." 

XII. . . . Christ's Ideal of His Own Church 210 

" Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the 
Church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify 
and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word ; 
that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not 
having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it 
should be holy and without blemish." (Eph. v, 25-27.) 

XIII The Receipt for Holiness. ...... 229 

" Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto 
sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." 
(Romans vi, 11.) 

XIV. . . The Natural Man and Spiritual Things. . . 245 

"But the natural man receiveth # not the things of the Spirit of 
God ; for they are foolishness unto him : neither can he 
know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But 
he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is 
judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the 
Lord , t hat he may instruct him ? But we have the mind of 
Christ." (1 Cor. ii, 14-16.) 



IX. 



Strength and Beauty. 



160 



TEXTS OF SERMONS. V 

PAGE. 

XV. . . Contrast between the Worldling and the 

Christian. ...» 261 



"Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the 
will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein 
is excess ; but be filled with the Spirit : speaking to your- 
selves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing 
and making melody in your heart to the Lord." (Ephe- 
sians v, 17-19.) 

XVI Uttermost Salvation 277 

" Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that 
come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make in- 
tercession for them." (Heb. vii, 25.) 

XYII The Blood and the Testimony 298 

" And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by 
the word of their testimony; and they loved not their 
lives unto the death." (Rev. xii, 11.) 

XVIII Kings and Priests 319 

11 Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his 
own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God 
and his Father, to him be glory and dominion forever 
and ever. Amen." (Rev. i, 6.) 

XIX. . . Filled with the Fullness of Christ 335 

" For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. 
And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all 
principality and power." (Col. ii, 9, 10.) 

XX The Blood- washed Throng . 357 

" And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are 
these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came 
they ?' ' etc. (Rev. vii, 13-17.) 



INTRODUCTION. 



What a wonderful book is the Bible ! Its thoughts 
are seed-thoughts. Its words are germs that expand and 
develop until, like the tree of life, they feed the nations. 
Its sentences, even its phrases, are the basis of countless 
sermons and essays. For eighteen centuries the words 
of Christ have been inspiring the nations, and thousands 
of men of energy and of eloquence have from age to 
age borne witness to their saving power. To-day more 
ministers stand in Christian pulpits than ever before. 
Their theme is unchanged. It is still " Christ and him 
crucified." Who talk to-day of Plato or Socrates or 
Aristotle? Men were they of brilliant intellects and of 
commanding power. But their w T ords are heard only in 
the schools. Of Jesus the little children sing, manhood 
accepts him as sovereign Lord, and old age sees in him 
"the resurrection and the life." 

Every sentence, every word that Jesus uttered has 
been carefully and critically studied. Profound thinkers 
have studied their meaning, the best of scholars have 
translated them into more than two hundred languages, 
the rich prize them as untold treasures, and so multi- 
plied are they by the power of the press that the poor 
can have them without money and without price. Who 
cares to teach Plato or Newton or Locke to the heathen? 
But now men take their lives in their hands, and haste 
away to tell the name of Jesus to savages and cannibals, 

3 



4 



INTRODUCTION. 



and, behold, the savage becomes clothed and in his right 
mind. 

Yet the Bible is not exhausted. Its treasures grow 
richer as the ages increase. Allusions, dark and mean- 
ingless centuries ago, have, by the advance of knowl- 
edge, become bright and luminous. Every step of 
science, every triumph over the elements, enlarges not 
only our knowledge of God, but gives us clearer views 
of his Word. We read between the lines more of his 
wisdom, his compassion, and his love. So is it also in 
Christian experience. The higher the Christian ascends, 
his view enlarges. The horizon stretches farther and 
farther away, and he beholds distant mountain heights 
that sparkle with the glory of the Lord. The Bible 
which he read in youth has new beauties. He finds 
comfort and instruction in expressions which he had 
never before understood. The Word had been to him 
always refreshing; but now, possibly in some moment 
of sorrow, there seems to be pressed from it the " fresh 
juices of the grape." It is " sweeter than honey and 
the honey-comb." It is more " to be desired than gold; 
yea, than much fine gold." 

The mission of the preacher of the Gospel is a glori- 
ous one. It is to speak Christ's words to men — to so 
speak them as to instruct, warn, or comforc, and thus to 
" present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." Though 
the text be old, the sermon is new. It is a fresh appli- 
cation of truth to some yearning heart. Yon moon, of 
Jupiter has been for ages revolving and shining; but 
the eye that for the first time sees it through the tele- 
scope is enraptured with the view. Christ has been the 
"star of Bethlehem," " the bright and the morning 
star," for the centuries ; but when the preacher cries out, 



INTRODUCTION. 



5 



t ' Behold the Lamb of God!" the sinner for the first 
time looks and lives. He is a new creature. The tid- 
ings, the sermon, the surroundings seem to echo back 
the Savior's voice, " Behold, I make all things new." 

The printed sermon can never equal its utterance 
from human hps. The presence, the eye of fire and of 
love, the voice of sweetness and of compassion, the pres- 
ent testimony, and the sympathizing audience are all 
wanting. Yet it is of great value and power. In it 
are preserved the thoughts of clear and able minds, the 
illustrations and imagery that enrich, and the apt and 
forcible expressions that reach and captivate the heart. 
In some respects it has advantages over the preached 
Word. That is heard for the moment, and, if not clearly 
comprehended, is lost forever. But this is read and 
re-read. The statement, if not perfectly clear at first, 
becomes so on examination. The truth may thus be 
more perfectly impressed upon the understanding. This, 
in doctrinal teaching, is very important. Great leaders, 
such as Calvin, Luther, and Wesley, felt the necessity 
of writing many of their sermons, and of thus placing 
their doctrines in permanent form before the public eye. 

Besides, there are many detained from public wor- 
ship by watching with friends, or in performing works 
of mercy. To them the printed sermon becomes a val- 
uable substitute for the teachings of their pastor. Others 
are confined by illness to a sick-chamber. How much 
comfort may they derive from the printed page, either 
read or heard! 

The sermons composing this volume are from the 
pen of Rev. L. R. Dunn, D. D., an able and experi- 
enced member of the Newark Conference. In substance 
they were delivered to congregations which he served, 



6 



INTRODUCTION. 



or to larger audiences on special occasions. They have 
been prepared for the press at the request of friends 
who heard them, and who were profited by their deliv- 
ery. Their style is clear and forcible, and the illustra- 
tions are interesting and profitable. The themes pertain 
to the higher experiences of Christian life, and are free 
from the spirit of controversy. 

In full conviction that they will be profitable to 
many who read them, and that they will assist in guid- 
ing the earnest inquirer to the cross of Christ and to a 
high religious experience, I cordially commend them, 
and wish for them a wide circulation. 

M. SIMPSON. 

Philadelphia, September 2, 1882. 



SERMONS. 



i. i 

CALLED TO BE SAINTS. 

Text: " Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth, to 
them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints" — 
1 Corinthians i, 2. 

Max Mtjller has well said, in his lectures on 
" The Science of Religion/' that " the intention of 
religion, wherever we meet it, is always holy." And 
further on he says : " Religion places the human 
soul in the presence of its highest ideal of perfec- 
tion, which, for the time being, it can reach or grasp. 
It lifts it above the level of ordinary goodness, and 
produces at least a yearning after a higher and a 
better life — a life in the light of God." 

No one can fail to see how exactly this harmo- 
nizes with the language of the text. But while all 
other religions may have this intention, yet all, 
except the religion of Christ, fail to inform men 
how they can be made holy, how they can rise up 
to these ideals of perfection presented to their 
minds, how they can be lifted up into the light of 
God. It is just here that the religion of the Bible 
has the advantage over all other systems. It not 



8 



SERMONS. 



only calls and commands men to be holy; but it 
promises to make them holy upon the simplest con- 
ditions, which are clearly made known. It proclaims 
a Deliverer, a Savior, who has died in order to make 
men holy, who shed his own blood to purify the 
fountain of human guilt, defilement, and depravity. 
He came into the world to save sinners. The very 
name of Jesus was given to him because he would 
a save his people from their sins not merely from 
the guilt, condemnation, and power and impurity of 
sin, but from the sins which produce all these ter- 
rible effects. 

This, however, is merely a one-sided and partial 
view of the matter. Christ proposes not only to 
save men from their sins, but to make them holy ; 
not only to remove the mountain load of their guilt, 
but to purify the very fountain of their being. 
His system would have been seriously, if not fatally, 
incomplete, if it had proposed merely to deliver men 
from their sins, and leave them with the tendencies 
and proclivities of their nature unchecked and un- 
changed. Great as this work would have been, it 
would have failed in the ultimate and complete ele- 
vation and deliverance of man if it had gone no 
further. The provision is more ample and wide- 
reaching than this. It not only by pardoning man's 
sins, and justifying him, places him in a new rela- 
tion to God ; but by renewing and sanctifying him 
it gives him a new nature. It,not only pardons man, 
it also purifies him. It not only removes the bur- 
den of the sins of his past lifetime, but it implants 



CALLED TO BE SAINTS. 



9 



in him the beginnings of saintliness. It makes him 
a " partaker of the divine nature," and puts on him 
"the new man which after God's image is created 
in knowledge and true holiness." And so, right 
here, here in the midst of the city of Corinth, the 
ancient Paris, surrounded by wealth, voluptuous- 
ness, pride, and impurity of every form, there were 
men and women who were u sanctified in Christ 
Jesus, and called saints." 

This is what Christ's religion proposes to do 
everywhere, and this it has done in all the ages. 
An exceedingly able writer, the author of " Ecce 
Homo," has said : u Among all the men of the an- 
cient heathen world there were scarcely one or two 
to whom we might venture to apply the epithet 
holy. But in Christian countries holiness has 
existed. It has not been rare. There has scarcely 
been a town or country place where, within a few 
years, some one has not been found bearing this 
character." Tertullian boldly said, in his day, to 
the heathen rulers : " We Christians are alone with- 
out crime; no Christian suffers but for his religion." 
And Minucius Felix says : " Your prisons are full ; 
but they contain not one Christian." 

L What, thex, are we called to be? 

The apostle said to the Corinthians, and through 
them he says to us, " Called to be saints." This 
word for saint, both in the Hebrew and Greek, sig- 
nifies a consecrated, godly, holy person. This, in- 
deed, is the almost universal meaning of the word. 
We have no difficulty, then, in getting at the mean- 



10 



SERMONS. 



ing of the apostle here. We are called to be holy 
persons. "We see at a glance that this is no merely 
ideal or fanciful condition which is referred to, but 
an actual state or condition which may possibly be 
realized. The text, divested of its italics, reads 
simply, " Called saints." This appellation is given 
by the apostle to all true Christians, because they 
are separated from the world and devoted to God; 
and because even in the babe in Christ there are all 
the elements, in germ, of a saintly character and 
life. Hence the apostle sends his greeting to the 
Churches in this form. 

Two things, however, are to be borne in mind 
here : 

First. That the standard of religious ex'perience 
and life was actually higher among them than it is 
in the minds of many at the present. It meant 
more among them to be a Christian than it means 
now. For them to profess to be Christians was 
frequently the sure road to the dungeon or the am- 
phitheater ; to exile or confiscation of goods ; to 
the stake or the block. No one would be likely to 
avow himself a believer in the Christian religion 
unless he had actually experienced its grace, its 
power, and its hopes. And with the keen eye of 
the heathen world watching them, they knew how 
important it was for them to live holy lives. 

With us it is often widely different from this; 
it has become fashionable, respectable, to be Chris- 
tians. There is none of the persecution of violence 
among us; and but little of that of vituperation or 



CALLED TO BE SAINTS. 



11 



scorn. The vast majority of professing Christians, 
because of their worldliness, fashion, folly, and pride, 
meet with very little opposition from the world or 
the powers of darkness. Religion at the present 
day, with many, is a matter of convenience, a sec- 
ondary consideration, a holiday pastime, a Sunday 
" dress-parade," a sham fight on the part of the 
Church, in which Satan is sure to conquer. It ev- 
idently is not true of very many who bear the name 
of Christians that they are saints, or can with any 
propriety be called by that name. Indeed, they 
themselves repudiate it. But all in the early Church 
were thus called. 

Secondly. While this was affirmed of them in 
their early religious life, there was constantly held 
out before them, in the preaching, epistles, prayers, 
and exhortations of the apostles, a far higher grade 
of Christian experience, to be enjoyed in this life, 
and which they were urged to seek and press for- 
ward to enjoy. For instance, the members of the 
Church at Rome were " called saints," were "justi- 
fied by faith, and had peace with God." " The love 
of God was also shed abroad in their hearts by the 
Holy Ghost given unto them;" and they had "the 
witness of the Spirit" to their childship. But they 
are besought, " by the mercies of God, to present their 
bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, 
which was their reasonable service," and to " be trans- 
formed, by the renewing of their minds, that they 
might ' prove what is that good, and acceptable, and 

perfect will of God." So the members of the Corin- 

2 



12 



SERMONS. 



thian Church are called saints; yet they were still 
carnal, with many irregularities in their Christian 
character. Hence Paul says, " This also we wish, w 
even your perfection ;" and he exhorts them to " be 
perfect." Likewise the Church at Ephesus had so 
trusted in Christ that they had been " saved and 
sealed," " quickened with Christ," " and raised up 
to sit in the heavenlies with him." And yet Paul 
prayed for them in the matchless prayer recorded in 
chapter iii, 14-21. The members of the Philippian 
Church, the most blameless of any of the Churches, 
perhaps, to which he wrote, were yet called upon to 
imitate his example in " forgetting the things which 
are behind, and reaching forth to the things which 
are before, and in pressing towards the mark for the 
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 
The members of the Church at Colosse are called 
" saints and faithful brethren ;" yet the apostle prays 
for them that they might be " filled with the knowl- 
edge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual under- 
standing." And he exhorts them, "if they are risen 
with Christ, to mortify the deeds of the body;" to 
"put off all these things, and to put on the new 
man." To the Thessalonians the Gospel had come 
in power, and they had been wonderfully saved 
through it. Yet the apostle utters the oft-repeated 
prayer for them: "And the very God of peace sanc- 
tify you wholly : and I pray God that your whole 
spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless 
unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

These instances are amply sufficient to illustrate 



CALLED TO BE SAINTS. 



13 



and confirm what we have said. From all this we 
may gather that the early Christians had a degree 
of saintliness, and although often mixed up with 
carnality, weaknesses, and remaining corruptions, 
yet they were in the processes of " being saved." 
Every one who is in Christ is just so far a saint as 
his faith appropriates him and instrumentally real- 
izes his power to save. 

But who are the persons called saints? They 
are human beings, not angels,, not unfallen beings. 
They are those who have been, and are, encompassed 
with frailties, infirmities, and failures; exposed to 
fierce onsets from the world and all the powers of 
darkness; and who, while in a probationary state, 
are liable to fall into sin and its consequences. 

More than this, they have been sinners, under 
guilt and condemnation. " By nature they were 
children of wrath, even as others." But the sinful 
nature had developed itself in acts of willful viola- 
tion of the commands of God, and brought them 
under his displeasure and wrath. They have been 
sinners of every grade and of every degree, from 
the boastful moralist and the proudly self-righteous 
to the profane, the drunkard, and the libertine. 
Hear what the apostle says of their previous char- 
acter and condition. Some of the Corinthians, now 
called saints, had been " fornicators, idolaters, adul- 
terers, effeminate, Sodomites, thieves, covetous, and 
drunkards." He says of the Ephesians, "Ye were 
dead in trespasses and sins." They were " under 
the power of Satan, fulfilling the desires of their 



14 



SERMONS. 



flesh and mind." The Colossians had walked "in 
uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, 
and cov£tousness," enkindling the wrath of God 
against them. Such were those who had been saved 
and sanctified and called saints. 

They were saved sinners. They had been " washed, 
sanctified, justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus and 
by the Spirit of God." They had been " quickened 
together with Christ," had been "brought nigh by 
his blood, and become fellow-citizens with the saints 
and of the household of God." They had "put 
off the old man with his deeds, and had put on the 
new man." They "were risen together with Christ, 
and were seeking the things which are above." 
Now, being " born of God, they do not commit sin : 
for his seed remaineth in them, and they can not 
sin because they are born of God." The song 
which they all join in singing expresses their true 
condition and the blood by which they were cleansed : 
" Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our 
sins in his own blood." This is the Bible idea of 
a saint. 

This is very different from the idea of the world 
and Rome and High - churchism. If you ask the 
worldling what his idea of a saint is, he will tell 
you he is a sniveling hypocrite, a fanatic, or a fool. 
The Romanist will tell you that a saint is one who 
is canonized by the Church after he has been dead 
for some centuries, and is reported to have wrought 
a miracle. The High-churchman thinks that he is 
one who goes scrupulously through all the forms 



CALLED TO BE SAINTS. 



15 



and ceremonies of the Church, keeps Lent to the 
letter, and in whose mind the Church is every thing. 
Such are the ideas entertained by many persons. 
And yet, in all periods of the Church and of the 
world, this name has been coveted by certain classes 
of men. Not only is this true of Christendom, but 
also among Moslems and the heathen. And what 
efforts have men made to reach their own ideal, and 
to be regarded by their fellow-men as saints ! The 
devotees of Rome have dwelt in lone caves in the 
mountains, or in the dense shadows of the forest; 
have lived and died on lofty pillars; have plunged 
themselves into the seclusion of monastic cells and 
nunneries; have endured indescribable tortures, both 
physical and mental; have been wasted away with 
fastings, and have performed the most humiliating 
and degrading penances. And some of them, more 
perhaps than we can know of, have, in the midst 
of all their surrounding darkness, caught the 
heavenly light streaming from Calvary, and have 
washed in the fountain of its blood. Such men as 
Bernard, Thomas Aquinas, the Marquis de Renty, 
and Fenelon, and such women as t Margaret, duchess 
of Alencon, Madame Guyon, and Catherine Adorna, 
with all their errors, mysticisms, and weaknesses, 
have furnished examples of saintliness which not 
only added luster to their own age, but which in 
history and in song will shed light on all the future 
of the Church of God. 

Again, the Moslem, that he might gain the. charac- 
ter of a saint, as represented in his Koran, and have 



16 



SERMONS. 



the name of a saint among his fellows, has devoutly 
gone upon long pilgrimages to Mecca and other sacred 
places, has performed frequent ablutions, attended 
punctiliously to his forms of prayer, and practiced 
the most rigid self-denial. And so the devotees of 
heathenism, in all the ages, have made pilgrimages 
to sacred shrines and sacred rivers, offered sacrifices, 
practiced austerities, have stood with uplifted arm 
until the rigid muscles have refused to bend, have 
endured the greatest tortures, and even suffered 
cruel death, for the purpose of being called saints 
and having the reverence which such a name has 
always inspired. 

But how few of these have measured up to the 
divine ideal ! Philosophy, Mohammedanism, heath- 
enism, can not make men holy in the highest sense. 
Lecky has well said : " Philosophy may dignify, but 
is impotent to regenerate ; it may cultivate virtue, but 
it can not restrain vice." The efforts made by the 
systems referred to are directed mainly to " make 
clean the outside of the cup and platter f y to white- 
wash the sepulcher, within which putrefaction and 
death reign undisturbed. Man wants to be regarded 
and treated as a saint by his brother man — thus to 
feed the pride and vanity of his heart, and secure 
his selfish and ambitious ends. On the other hand, 
God's plan is first to cleanse man's heart, to purify 
the very fountain of his being, to humbte self, to 
" crucify the flesh, with the affections and lusts 
thereof;" to go down into the grave of his fallen 
and depraved nature, and with the resurrection 



CALLED TO BE SAINTS. 



17 



power make even the dead to live; and to cause 
the redeemed and saved man to sit down at the feet 
of Jesus, humble, gentle, and submissive as a child. 
He that would become the greatest in the kingdom 
of God, so the Great Teacher himself declared, 
must become as a little child. And so it is, that 
the more saintliness there is in the character the 
more humility will there be. It is so on the earth ; 
it will be so in the heaven of heavens forever. So 
sings Montgomery: 

" The bird that soars on highest wing, 
Builds on the ground her lowly nest ; 

And she that doth most sweetly sing, 
Sings in the shade, when all things rest. 

In lark and nightingale we see, 

What honor hath humility. 

The saint that wears heaven's brightest crown, 

In lowliest adoration bends ; 
The weight of glory bows him down 

The most, when most his soul ascends. 
Nearest the throne itself must be 
The footstool of humility." 

There are, doubtless, various degrees of saintli- 
ness, as we have already intimated. We see this 
in individual Christians, in the successive periods 
of their career. This is beautifully illustrated in 
the character of the Apostle Paul. Converted about 
the year 35-6 A. D., in the year 59 he writes to the 
Corinthians, " I am the least of the apostles, that 
am not meet to be called an apostle, because I per- 
secuted the Church of God." In 64 he wrote to 
the Ephesians, " I am less than the least of all 
saints." In 66 he writes to Timothy, and says, " I 



18 



SERMONS. 



am the chief of sinners." In twenty-two months 
after this he triumphantly entered into glory. Thus 
we see how, as he grew in saintliness, he grew in 
humility. So Wesley finished up his long earthly 
career, saying, 

"I the chief of sinners am, 
But Jesus died for me." 

While, however, there are these various degrees 
of experience in different Christians, and while in 
the experiences of the individual believer there are 
all the grades of experience, from the babe in Christ, 
unto the " measure of the fullness of the stature of 
a perfect man in Christ Jesus," yet this difference 
is not always the result of the lapse of time. Some 
never seem to grow any; they are always babes. 
Others advance rapidly, and soon reach lofty sum- 
mits in the divine life. Sometimes more real spir- 
itual advancement will be made in a crisis of our 
experience in a single day or hour than has been 
made in months or years before. Our growth in 
saintliness will be in proportion to our faith. Time, 
with its changes, is doubtless a factor in the matur- 
ity of our saintliness; but faith is the mightiest 
instrument in this work. Some young Christians, 
very soon after their conversion, have experienced 
the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit; and others 
have not known it until after long years of struggle. 
Some go right on to perfection from the first ; others, 
and they are the majority, reach it after a dreary 
wilderness march of forty years. But it is within 
the reach of every Christian every moment. "All 



CALLED TO BE SALNTS. 



19 



things are now ready." The blood that cleanseth, 
and the Spirit that sanctifieth wholly, are ready 
always; are ready now to do this work. The simple 
condition is faith — faith in the provision and the 
promise ; faith which says it must be done, and 
faith which says "it is done." O let it be the long- 
ing cry of every one : 

" O that I might at once go up, 
No more on this side Jordan stop, 

But now the land possess! 
This moment end my legal years, 
Sorrows and sins and doubts and fears, 

A howling wilderness." 

God has often called men saints whom the world 
has spurned and counted as its very "filth and 
ofifseouring." The world and a godless hierarchy 
have stoned and burned and beheaded and exiled 
and endungeoned many for whom the heavens have 
been opened, and Jesus, at the right hand of God, 
has stood ready to welcome to his everlasting home 
those of whom the world was not worthy, whom 
it compelled to "dwell in dens and caves of the 
mountains, to wander in sheepskins and goatskins, 
destitute, afflicted, tormented." Yet their names 
are high up on the roll of God's saints, and they 
are honored by all the heavenly hosts. 

Jt is wonderful now to stand and view the vast 
procession of these saints as they "throng up the 
steeps of light," a procession before which the angels 
lift their crowns and bow with reverent admiration 
of their character and their deeds. There, heading 
the innumerable throng, is Abel, the proto-martyr 



20 



SERMONS. 



under the Old Testament dispensation, whose blood 
was shed because of his belief in the efficacy of 
blood ; Enoch, who walked with God three hundred 
years, and then was not, for God took him; Noah, 
who rode triumphantly in his ark over the ruins of 
a buried world ; Abraham, who unstaggeringly be- 
lieved in God, and it was " accounted to him for 
righteousness;" Jacob, who saw the heavens opened, 
and the ladder on which the angels were ascending 
and descending spanning the whole distance between 
earth and heaven, man and God; Moses, who saw 
the burning bush on the bleak sides of Horeb, 
brought Israel out of bondage, talked with God upon 
the thunder-riven mount, stood at last upon Pisgah, 
viewing the land of promise, and then ascended to 
God; Samuel, who in the midst of an impious age 
lived a blameless and spotless life from his early 
childhood ; David, Israel's sweet singer, whose songs 
of joy and sorrow, triumph and praise have been 
ringing adown the ages — Isaiah, the evangelical 
prophet, Jeremiah the weeping one, and Ezekiel, the 
fiery one; Elijah, God's mightiest prophet, and 
Elisha, upon whom his mantle fell; Daniel coming 
up unhurt from the den of lions, and the Hebrew 
children unscathed by the fire; John the Baptist, 
with his hairy garment and leathern girdle, crying 
still amid this world's wildernesses, " Prepare ye the 
way of the Lord." There, too, are the apostles of 
our Lord from their fishing-boats, the receipt of 
custom, and the feet of Gamaliel. Then we have the 
noble army of the martyrs and confessors, " dying 



CALLED TO BE SAINTS. 



21 



champions for their God ;" WiclifFe, and Huss and 
Jerome, Luther, Melancthon, Zwingle, Fare], Calvin, 
Knox, the Wesleys, and Whitefield and Fletcher, 
and an innumerable company of all the ages. Nor 
must we overlook in this great throng the saintly 
women whose characters have adorned the ages — 
Sarah, the mother of Israel, and Deborah, the 
prophetess, and Elizabeth, and Mary, the mother of 
the Lord, and Mary Magdalene, and Phoebe, and 
Priscilla, and Dorcas, and Susanna Wesley, Hester 
Ann Rogers, Mrs. Fletcher, and a host of others 
whose names are like " ointment poured forth." 
These are only specimens of a countless host. As 
in the review of a great army returning victoriously 
from the battle-field, we notice especially the great 
leaders under whom those victories have been won, 
while we cheer the whole of the battalions as they 
pass along, so we have only been able to catch a 
glimpse here and there of those names more widely 
known, many of them, than any of the kings and 
conquerors of this world. 

II. How are we Called to be Saints? 

First of all, by the revelation to us of the character 
of God : " Be ye holy, for I, the Lord your God, am 
holy." " Holiness belongeth unto the Lord." " Be 
ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is 
in heaven is perfect." It is this view of the divine 
character w T hich shows us the possibilities of our 
being, which humbles the soul into the dust, and 
makes us feel the need of being made like Him. 
So with J ob when the Lord spoke to him out of the 



22 



SERMONS. 



whirlwind, he was overwhelmed with the sense of 
his purity and his power, and he cried out: "I 
have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but 
now mine eye seeth thee; therefore I abhor myself 
and repent in dust and ashes." And Isaiah, when 
he saw the Lord high and lifted up, his train 
filling the temple, and the six-winged Seraphim 
crying, Holy, holy, holy, until the posts of the door 
moved, and the temple was filled with smoke, cried 
out, " Woe is me, for I am undone ; for I am a man 
of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people 
of unclean lips ; for mine eyes have seen the King, 
the Lord of hosts." It is only when this view of 
the divine holiness bursts upon the soul that it is 
humbled into the very dust; and then the live coal 
touches the lips, the heart, and cleanses its iniquity, 
and purges away its sins. And it is well for us to 
remember here that there is no attribute of his 
nature upon which God dwells so frequently in his 
Word as he does upon his holiness. 

Second. We are called to this by the provisions 
of redemption. Why were these provisions made? 
Why was God's only begotten Son given to our 
world? Why did he shed his blood and die? Why 
was the fountain of blood opened ? Why was 
the agency of the Divine, Almighty Spirit secured 
for humanity? To all these inquiries there is but 
one answer, That we " might be redeemed from all 
iniquity," be " cleansed from all sin," be " sanctified 
wholly, and preserved blameless until Christ shall 
come." All these provisions seem to have a voice 



CALLED TO BE SAINTS, 



23 



and to cry to man: " You are redeemed; you may 
be saved. Here is pardon for your guilt. Here is 
cleansing for your defilement. Here is heaven for 
your hell. No matter how deep or how foul the 
blot of your sins, it may all be washed away ." Thus 
while Sinai thunders, " Be ye holy," Calvary re- 
sponds, "The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, 
cleanseth from all sin." 

Third. We are called both by the command and 
the promise of God. I have conjoined the command 
w r ith the promise, because every command of God is 
an implied promise ; and every promise an implied 
command. Whatever God requires us to be or to do 
indicates to us that he will help us so to be and so 
to do. And when he promises his gifts I am under 
obligation to accept them. I am responsible for my 
privileges. When God commands me to be holy I 
understand him to say: "I will make you holy." 
The promise is always commensurate with the com- 
mand. The two are inseparably joined. These com- 
mands are on almost every page of his Word, and 
breathe in nearly every line. And so there are 
given to us " exceeding great and precious promises 
that by these ye might be partakers of the divine 
nature." By these commands and promises God 
calls every person to be saintly, to be holy, as 
clearly and distinctly as if an angel from heaven 
were personally to utter them in his ears. 

Fourth. We are called by the highest consider- 
ations of our usefulness and happiness on the earth, 
and our full preparation for the glories of heaven. 



24 



SERMONS. 



The more saintly a man is, the more useful will he 
be. Nothing so really impresses the ungodly as a 
saintly character. Nothing so tends to elevate and 
bless and save men. This is the great preparation 
for the work of the ministry; and this is essential 
in all the walks and works of Christian usefulness. 
O ye ministers of Christ, ye official and private 
members of the Church ! if ye would be useful, ye 
must be holy. Clad in the vestments of saintliness, 
even the humblest Christian may accomplish a work 
which will make all hell to tremble, and all heaven 
to rejoice. The heroes and conquerors in the 
Church, both men and women, have been those who 
were illustrious for their saintliness. " Holiness is 
power." It is the only thing which can lift this 
sin-cursed world up to God and heaven. This gives 
us not only power with God, but also power with 
men. I need scarcely add, This is our only prepara- 
tion for heaven. That is a holy place. The com- 
pany there is all holy. The songs, the joy, the bliss, 
are all derived from holiness. And if we would be 
fitted for that world of light, if we are " made meet 
for the inheritance of the saints in light," w r e must 
be saintly, like them. The more saintly we are 
upon the earth, the brighter will be our crown, the 
sweeter our harp-notes, the higher our rank, and the 
more abundant our bliss. Holiness is the patent of 
heaven's high nobility. 

Fifth. As Methodists, especially, how are we 
called to this character and life ? Our great founder, 
under God, recognized this as the great mission of 



CALLED TO BE SAINTS. 



25 



Methodism, to "spread Scriptural holiness over all 
lands. " But we can not spread what we have not got. 

Our whole theology was written from this stand- 
point So says Dr. Warren, in his " Introduction 
to Christian Theology :" " In Luther's mind, justifi- 
cation by faith was the central idea of Christianity, 
as in Calvin's the decree was the central idea. But 
Methodism, in respect to its inmost spirit and es- 
sence, is a viewing of Christianity from the stand- 
point of Christian perfection, or perfect love. In 
Mr. Wesley's experience, the struggle was for entire 
sanctification ; and so in his study of the doctrines 
of the Bible, he iooked at them all from the highest 
stage of religious consciousness, and perfect love be- 
came the formal principle of his theology."* So 
our lamented McClintock declared of our system 
of doctrines, in his great speech on the Centenary 
of Methodism • " In ours, holiness is the very point 
from which we view all theology. Now listen; I 
want that to be understood. Knowing exactly what 
I say, and taking the full responsibility of it, I re- 
peat, we are the only Church in history, from the 
apostles' time until now, that has put forward, as its 
very elemental thought, the holiness of the human 
soul, heart, mind, and will. Go through all the con- 
fessions of all the Churches, and you will find this in 
no other. You will find even some of them that blame 
us in their books and writings. It may be called fa- 
naticism, but, dear friends, that is our mission. If 
we keep to that, the next century is ours ; if we keep 

* Quarterly Review, January, 1866. 



26 



SERMONS. 



to that, the triumphs of the next century shall throw 
those that are past into the shade. Our work is a 
moral work — that is to say, to make men holy. 
Our preaching is for that; our Church agencies are 
for that ; our schools, colleges, universities, and the- 
ological seminaries are for that. There is our mis- 
sion, there is our glory, there is our power, and 
there shall be the ground of our triumph. God 
keep us true !" Would to God that we had as a 
Church, in all our ministry and membership, kept 
to that! But I fear greatly that, in multitudes of 
instances, we have not. 

Not only so, our hymnology is saturated with this 
truth, more especially in its earlier and more thor- 
oughly Methodistic forms. If this were given up, 
we should have to give up two-thirds at least of the 
hymnology of Methodism, and that, too, its richest 
and its best. And are we prepared for this? 

Again, our ministry are especially pledged to expe- 
rience and proclaim this truth. Every one who en- 
ters our ranks is asked, " Do you expect to be made 
perfect in love in this life?" and, "Are you groaning 
after it?" All are expected to declare, in the pres- 
ence of God and his Church, that they are " going 
on to perfection." And no one can, or should, min- 
ister at our altars who can not clearly, unequivo- 
cally, and unreservedly answer these inquiries. But 
alas, how many forget their vows ! 

Finally, we are thus called, as a people, by our 
biographical literature. We have the richest bio- 
graphical literature of any Church on the earth. 



CALLED TO BE SAINTS. 



27 



The lives of Wesley, Fletcher, A. Clarke, Bramwell, 
Carvosso, and many others, all teach this truth. 
Look, also, into the biographies of the sainted 
women of our Methodism — Mrs. Fletcher, Mrs. 
Mortimer, Lady Fitzgerald, the countess of Hunt- 
ingdon, Hester Ann Rogers — beautiful, angel-like 
Hester Ann Rogers. And not only these of the 
Wesleyan Church, but also of our American Meth- 
odism — Asbury, Whatcoat, George, McKendree, 
Fisk, Olin, Bangs, Cookman, and many others. 
And one and all of them utter a call to us, saying, 
" Be holy ! Be saints !" O, if ever a people were 
called upon to be a holy, a saintly people, it is " the 
people called Methodists !" Thus are we now called. 
Thus are we called every day of our lives. And 
shall we not heed the call? Shall we not joyfully 
respond ? If the Methodist Church should ignore 
or become unfaithful to this call, her doom is writ- 
ten. She can not survive this long. Disintegra- 
tion, decay, death, would speedily come upon her. 

All the elements of this saintliness are within 
our reach now. We may all become saints ; not by 
human or legalistic efforts, but by the divine agen- 
cies which God employs. Let us not, however, try 
to seem saintly when we are not saints. This is a 
pitiable sight. But be cleansed in Jesus's blood, 
be sanctified by the Spirit, and your light will shine 
without effort. The sun and the stars do not try to 
shine.' They have the light in them, and they simply 
shine. Does any one ask, " How long will it take 
me to become a saint ?" I answer, "By your own 



28 



SERMONS. 



unaided efforts, never; by the blood of Christ and 
the power of the Holy Ghost, now" True, matu- 
rity requires time ; but holiness may be had now. 

God is calling us, as by a trumpet-blast, to be 
saints. While infidelity and Romanism and ration- 
alism and intemperance are pressing upon us from 
without, and worldliness, fashion, pride, folly, unbe- 
lief, coldness, and indifference from within, O may 
the Churches arise and shine in all the beauties of 
the saintly character, and in all the power of a 
saintly life. 



ENTIRE CONSECRATION. 



29 



II. 



ENTIRE CONSECRATION. 

Text: "Who, then, is willing to consecrate his service this 
day unto the Lord ?" — 1 Chronicle xxix, 5. 

The occasion on which the language of the text 
was uttered was one of the grandest and sublimest 
in the history of the Jewish nation. At the close 
of a long, troubled, yet prosperous reign, in which 
the borders of Israel had been greatly enlarged, and 
the wealth of his kingdom vastly increased, David, 
the royal psalmist, had convoked a grand assembly 
at Jerusalem. It is described in chapter xxviii, 1. 
This council was not assembled for warlike pur- 
poses, nor for territorial enlargement or national 
aggrandizement, but it was to provide for the erec- 
tion of the most costly and magnificent temple ever 
built in this world, the plan of which the Spirit 
of God had given to David, the consummation of 
which was to be effected by his son Solomon. "When 
all were assembled, the king rose to his feet and 
addressed them in earnest words. He told them 
how he had longed to build this house for God, 
how the Lord had refused him permission to do this 
because he was a man of war and of blood; how 
this work, by divine ajypointment, had been in- 



30 



SERMONS. 



trusted to Solomon, and of the immense preparation 
which he had made for it. He then gave a solemn 
charge to his son, and also a pattern of the whole 
building. Then follows an enumeration of the gold 
and the silver, and precious stones, and iron and 
wood, which he had prepared. After all this he calls 
upon the people for their contributions. The amount 
contributed on this day, according to the calculation 
of some authors, was the enormous sum of $600,- 
000,000 at least. This sum is regarded by Kitto as 
being probably the most nearly correct of any of 
the estimates made, although some think it was 
as high as $5,146,881,480. The offerings of the 
people were made with the greatest cheerfulness, 
insomuch that the heart of the aged king was over- 
whelmed with delight and joy, and he offered both 
prayers and thanksgivings. At his bidding the 
whole " congregation arose and blessed the Lord 
God of Israel and worshiped." 

Our Lord Jesus Christ is building the most 
magnificent temple that this world ever saw. The 
richness of the materials with which it is being con- 
structed, the grandeur and magnificence of the de- 
sign, the immense cost of this " building of God," 
all will occasion, at its completion, an outburst of 
praise from angels and archangels, and all the intel- 
ligences which God has made. Solomon's temple is 
only a faint type of this, while its gold and silver 
and precious stones sink into insignificance before 
the richer value and greater glory of this living 
temple. The foundations of this building are "the 



ENTIRE CONSECRATION. 



31 



apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being 
the chief corner-stone." And the materials are liv- 
ing stones — immortal spirits — each one of more 
value than all the gold and silver in the universe, 
purchased by the infinite preciousness of the blood 
of Christ, and prepared to be a part of the " habi- 
tation of God" by the infinite wisdom and power 
of the Eternal Spirit. Here, then, assembled before 
God at this time, I come to ask you, " Who is will- 
ing to consecrate his service this day unto the 
Lord?" The burden of my message this day is 
Consecration: What it implies and embraces; and, 
Why and when it should be made. 

I. What is Consecration ? 

The meaning of the word in the original is "to 
fill the hand," and the literal rendering of the text 
is, "Who is willing to fill his hand this day with 
offerings unto Jehovah?" When the priests under 
the former dispensation were consecrated, their hands 
were said to be filled with their office, their work, 
and their offerings. The word is also used for the 
devotement of any thing to God's worship and service. 
In this sense all the first-born in Israel, whether of 
man or beast, were to be devoted to the Lord. The 
tribe of Levi was taken in lieu of the first-born of 
Israel, and, in a special manner, devoted to the Lord. 
So the Nazarites of old devoted themselves to the 
Lord for a limited period ; and fields, possessions, and 
persons, in like manner, were set apart as belonging 
wholly unto the Lord. Under the present dispen- 
sation, every believer is set apart for God, and is, 



32 



SERMONS. 



or should be, devoted wholly to his service. This 
implies that God has a right to demand this conse- 
cration, and that we have the power to make it. 
These two things must ever be borne in mind. If 
there is any doubt about either of them, then the 
work will either be greatly delayed or never accom- 
plished. That God has the right to demand it, no 
one can reasonably doubt. But many doubt that 
we can comply with the demand. Of course, I mean 
that we have the power, through the redemptive 
work of Christ, which has procured the gracious 
agency of the Divine Spirit. No one is required to 
act, or is expected to act, in this transaction with- 
out grace. Thus aided, I say, we can all comply 
with this command. To argue otherwise would be 
to impute injustice to God for making a demand of 
us which we are by no means able to perform. 
There is not one now before me, there is not one 
in all this wide world, but who can, if he will, 
" consecrate his service this day unto the Lord." 

This command covei^ the whole being of man, 
with all its conditions, relations, and possibilities. 
But, primarily, it requires the surrender of the 
heart, or the moral powers. It is these which regu- 
late and control the whole being. Hence, God's 
first requirement is, " Thou shalt Love the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart" "My son, give me thy 
heart" Where the heart goes, there goes man's 
whole being. The moral powers include the will, 
the affections, and the conscience. There is no ob- 
stacle in the way of man's salvation so great as that 



ENTIRE CONSECRATION. 



33 



of an unsubdued and unsurrendered will. The 
whole stress of God\s requirement is made to bear 
upon this power. "Whosoever will, let him take 
the water of life freely." And, " Ye will not come 
to me that ye might have life." In the one instance 
it is the great power which leads man into salva- 
tion, holiness, and heaven; it leads him to bathe 
his parched lips, and slake his feverish thirst with 
the waters of life, to plunge into the purple flood, 
and to secure for his brow a diadem of glory; in 
the other, it serves to raise a barrier, heaven-high 
and hell-deep, between him and the fountain of life, 
the cross of redemption and the gates of pearl, and 
to determine his eternal banishment from God and 
from heaven. Wonderful is the power of the human 
will! In all his dealings with us God recognizes 
this wonderful power which he has given us. 

Now, God requires the surrender, the consecra- 
tion, first of all, of our will. He nowhere asks that 
this power shall be absorbed, destroyed, or lost, any 
more than he asks that our memory, reason, or im- 
agination shall undergo such a change. In fact, our 
wills can never be lost. If we are saved in heaven, 
w r e shall have a will ; if we are lost in hell, we shall 
have a will. What the Lord asks is that our wills 
should be surrendered, or subjected to his will ; that 
they should act in harmony with his will; that 
there should be no controversy, no antagonism, no 
war, between his will and ours; that, like parallel 
lines, which run on forever without contact or con- 
flict, so our will should run on to eternity in the 



34 



SERMONS. 



same direction with God's. Is not this the import 
of the petition, "Thy will be done in earth, as it 
is in heaven?" Now there is not an angel nor an 
archangel in heaven without a will; and yet that 
will is forever in harmony with God's. If it were 
not, there would be again " war in heaven/' instead 
of the eternal calm which pervades the city of God. 
The will is the key-stone to the arch of man's being. 
It is the foundation-stone of his whole mental and 
moral superstructure. If this is given up, or con- 
secrated, all else will be laid upon the altar with it. 

The consecration covers, also, our affectional 
powers. Every human heart possesses these powers. 
But, alas! they are perverted, abused, degraded. 
Like the vine, designed to cling to the trellis-work 
or to climb the oak, and thus mount heavenward, — 
but which, torn from its supports, twines its tendrils 
around clumps of grass or weeds or earth, — so the 
affections, having swung loose from God, cling to 
the low, vile, groveling objects of time and sense. 
Now the Lord asks and demands that these powers 
should be centered in and should cling to him. 
And, certainly, he is worthy of all our love. 

The requirement also embraces our conscience. 
This wonderful power, this voice of God in the 
human soul, often abused, benumbed, blinded, and 
seared, but which, ever and anon, asserts its suprem- 
acy and thunders down through every avenue of 
the soul; this power which is perverted by sin, 
prostituted to the service of Satan, God asks that it 
should be placed in his hands. He asks it, that he 



ENTIRE CONSECRATION. 



35 



may remove from it the deep incrustations of guilt 
which cover it; that he may heal the deep scars 
which sin has burned into it, and that he may make 
it enlightened, quick as the apple of the eye, and 
soft and tender as the flesh of a smiling infant. 

Now, then, we say that the surrender of these 
moral powers involves the surrender of the whole 
being; just as the surrender of Lee at Appomattox 
involved a surrender of the whole of the forces of 
the rebellion in the field and on the flood. 

Here is a point where many persons are hon- 
estly mistaken. The question is pressed upon them 
of their duty to be wholly the Lord's. One begins 
to think of his tobacco, another of his cups, another 
of her dress, another still of her worldly amuse- 
ments. And each asks, " How can I give this up ?" 
And thus the mind is perplexed with what is, after 
all, nothing ; comparatively but a trifle. To all 
such persons we would say, first of all, give your 
hearts to the Lord; 1 surrender your will, affections, 
and conscience to him, and all these things will 
come along in the train. Your great difficulty is 
not with these minor things, it is with your will. 
If you say, "I will be wholly the Lord's, I will 
consecrate myself to him wholly this day/' all other 
difficulties will vanish as clouds when the sun has 
risen in his strength. I know there are many who 
think and teach differently. And their great stress 
is laid against this and that habit, against this or 
that article of dress. This is like beginning to cut 

down the tree at the outmost twigs. God does not 

4 



36 



SERMONS. 



cut down the tree of man's sins in that way. He 
strikes right at the very root, and severs even the 
tap-root with the power of his arm. 

There are others who are always laboring with 
the understanding and the powers of ratiocination, 
as if they were the grand barriers in the way of 
man's salvation. But, as a rule, man's understanding 
is sufficiently enlightened, his judgment convinced. 
If the fool says, " There is no God/' he says it " in 
his heart." If men decry the Divine Christ and 
his atoning sacrifice, and the transforming and sanc- 
tifying Spirit, it is because their " foolish hearts are 
darkened." So if men oppose holiness, it is because 
of the antagonizing elements of sin in the soul. 
The apostle declared that, "by manifestation of the 
truth, he and his co-laborers commended themselves 
to every man's conscience in the sight of God." 
O, then, if my will is surrendered, consecrated to 
God, I see the affections of my heart lifting them- 
selves up Godward and heavenward. I see con- 
science, purified and enlightened, uttering God's 
voice, and fleeing from the least approach of sin. 
I see memory bringing its stores and laying them 
on God's altar. I see reason and judgment and 
understanding and imagination, all meekly bowing 
down, receiving the divine impress. I see the body, 
with its arms and limbs, with its tongue and voice, 
with its eyes and countenance, with all its parts and 
powers, obedient to the dictates of God's king and 
priest, who, robed in vestments of righteousness 
divine, holds sway over all its passions and its 



ENTIRE CONSECRATION. 



37 



powers. I see the family, the loving, gentle wife, 
the children — even the darling babe, before so much 
of an idol — all, all are here upon the altar. And I 
see, too, business, wealth, honors, reputation, social 
position, laid at the feet of Jesus, ready to say, 
" Here are we, Lord, to help on thy cause, and ad- 
vance the interests of thy kingdom." 

3. The command of God, requiring this conse- 
cration, is absolute; the performance of it by man 
is voluntary. The command admits of no compro- 
mise. God never compromises with his creatures. 
In fact, Jesus Christ is the most uncompromising 
sovereign in the world. And yet, strange to say, 
some persons labor all their life-time to compromise 
with God. They will do this if they could only be 
released from doing that. They will perform this 
duty if they could only be excused from the per- 
formance of that. Some will give their money if 
they could be released from giving their time; and 
some will give their time if they could only retain 
their money. Some will observe the outward form 
of religion, and tithe mint, and anise, and cumin, 
if they can neglect the weightier matters of the law. 
But in the midst of all and above all the clamor 
for compromise, Sinai's blazing mount still thunders 
out, and its voice is answered back from the blood- 
crimsoned brow of Calvary, "Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart." 

But man has the fearful power of obedience, or 
of disobedience. He can, aided by divine grace, 
obey God's voice; or he can turn a deaf ear unto 



38 



SERMONS. 



it, and refuse obedience to his requirements. And 
if this work is done at all, it must be done will- 
ingly. I know there are some who misquote God's 
Word, and say, " Thy people shall be made willing 
in the day of thy power." But there is no such 
Scripture as this. In fact, the utterance is as con- 
trary to philosophy as it is to revelation. The very 
same word is employed by the psalmist as is used 
here in saying, " The people offered willingly." And 
the literal meaning of that passage is, " Thy people 
shall be free-will offerings in the day of thy power." 
It is in view of this that they shall shine forth re- 
splendently, and in countless numbers, as the dew- 
drops of the morning, and in the beauty of holiness. 

It was the beauty of the offerings brought upon 
this occasion, and what so affected the heart of 
King David was that the people presented them so 
cheerfully and so freely. God will never force the 
citadel of our hearts. He will never break open 
the door which leads into them. If we are ever 
consecrated to God, it must be done voluntarily and 
cheerfully. It is true that the results will be widely, 
infinitely different, according to the choice which we 
make. If we are " willing and obedient we shall 
eat the fruit of the land." But if we disobey, 
" tribulation and wrath, indignation and anguish, 
shall be upon every soul." While this is a matter 
of voluntariness, it is not a matter of indifference. 

I know there are many different degrees of this 
consecration, according to the light, the conviction, 
the faith of the true Christian. All who are in a sense 



ENTIRE CONSECRATION, 



39 



true Christians do not so clearly as some compre- 
hend their privilege, or their duty ; their conscience 
is not so enlightened as that of others, and they, 
consequently, are held back from doing what they 
would otherwise cheerfully do, if the way of duty 
were made known to them. But I will say this, 
that no person can be a true Christian who is not 
longing to be wholly the Lord's, and is not willing 
to give up all to him. And yet, what multitudes 
profess to be Christians who know nothing even of 
justifying, or saving grace! 

4. Our service is to be consecrated to God. 

This is the very idea here. What did David mean 
when he asked this question ? Why, certainly, that 
his nobles and princes and captains should come 
forward and lay their offerings for God's temple at 
his feet. And this God requires of every one of us. 
We are to offer, or fill our hand, willingly, freely, 
cheerfully, and without constraint, with offerings to 
the Lord, recognizing that all we have of right 
belongs to him (verses 11-14), and that all should 
be freely employed for his honor and glory. Time, 
talents, money, property, position — every thing — are 
thus to be cheerfully surrendered and constantly 
employed. Self is to go down, no matter in what 
form it has exhibited itself — self-pride, self-seeking, 
self-ease, self-indulgence, false ambition, envy, jeal- 
ousy — and God alone is to be honored, worshiped, 
and adored. Every thing we can give for him, we 
are to give; every thing we can do for him, we are 
to do; every thing we can say for him, we are to 



40 



SERMONS. 



say. We are to own his right to every service we 
can pay. And this to a consecrated soul will be no 
hardship, but a delight — a " supreme delight." It 
will be done without murmuring, without grudging 
or fault-finding — with full consent, with heartiness, 
and with songs of joy. 

5. When this act of consecration is performed, 
it should be for all time and for all eternity. The 
act which it takes us so few moments to perform 
should bind us to the throne of God forever. Just 
as in the marriage bond, the wife gives up herself 
to her husband, and the husband endows her with 
all his wealth of affection, as well as his worldly 
goods ; so, in u this great transaction," man gives 
himself up wholly to the Lord, and the Lord gives 
himself to him; and just so, ever after, the mutual 
vows of the husband and wife are taken to love, to 
honor, and to cherish — to forsake all others and 
cling to each other so long as life shall last, or until 
death them do part; wherever they go they are to 
remember their vows, and to act accordingly. So 
the Christian is to remember his vows, and always 
and everywhere to feel, "I am my Lord's, and he 
is mine." Further still : if one or the other is 
guilty of a breach of the marital vows, the crime 
of adultery lies at the door. So God will charge 
his people now, as he did of old, with fornication 
and abandonment, if they break their vows to him 
and go after the vain things of this world. This 
covenant with the Lord is to be an everlasting cov- 
enant. To withdraw, or take back any part of what 



ENTIRE CONSECRATION. 



41 



we have voluntarily surrendered to God, is robbery, 
is sacrilege. What we give to God is no longer 
our own. Indeed, it never was really our own 
(verses 12-14). But God has required our acknowl- 
edgment of his right to us, and the relinquishment 
of our usurped right wholly to himself, as our abso- 
lute proprietor and Lord. When this is done, and 
the seal of God is placed upon us by the cleansing 
blood and the fire of the Holy Ghost, we are never, 
never, never to take back what we have given up. 
Such is the consecration which God requires. 
Let us see, 

II. Why we should make it. We are moved 
to this — 4 

1. By the highest considerations of duty, of in- 
terest, and of gratitude. The argument here is so 
plain, so clear, so frequently presented, that I need 
scarcely dwell upon it for any time. Our creation 
by the power of God gives to him, of right, the 
absolute proprietorship of all our powers. It is uni- 
versally acknowledged, that whatever is created, so 
to speak, by man's skill or genius or power, belongs 
to him of right. The name of the sculptor, painter, 
inventor, or of the architect and the musical com- 
poser, is enstamped or engraved or printed upon all 
his productions. For instance, every one knows the 
" Greek Slave " is the work of Powers ; the " Heart 
of the Andes," of Church; "St. Peter's," of Michael 
Angelo ; " The Messiah," of Handel. No one else 
can lay claim to these works. So the name of God 
should be upon our forehead, upon the tablet of our 



42 SERMONS. 

hearts, and upon all the powers of our mind. Any 
attempt to erase or obscure that name is a violation 
of the most sacred obligation, and is sure to be vis- 
ited with the divine displeasure. But O, how sin 
and Satan and the world and self have labored to 
blot out the name of God from man's being and sub- 
stitute their own names! But let us see well to it 
that the name of God is restored to his own prop- 
erty, and that it is forever outshining from all the 
powers of our being. 

But more than all this — more than the fact that 
"in His hands is our breath, and all our ways;" that 
" in him we live and move and have our being 
that every crumb of food which we eat, and every 
drop of water we drink, and every shred of cloth- 
ing we wear, and our comfortable homes, are all 
from him — is the higher, the more wonderful fact, 
that we are redeemed! 

The two grand arguments presented by the 
apostle for our consecration are, first, " The mer- 
cies of God;" and, second, " Ye are not your own; 
ye are bought with a price." Sin had doomed us 
to eternal slavery — to eternal damnation. But our 
Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed us; not, indeed, 
"with corruptible things," but with his own "pre- 
cious blood." It required a sacrifice of infinite 
value to redeem immortal spirits, and that sacri- 
fice the Son of God freely made. Here, then, is a 
double claim, which God has to us ; an infinite 
claim, infinitely surpassing all* other claims and 
considerations. O, then, not only our duty, but 



ENTIRE CONSECRATION. 



43 



our gratitude, calls upon us to make this conse- 
cration ! 

2. By making this, and having God accept it, 
we can only attain to the highest condition and pos- 
sibilities of our being. As the claims of God, founded 
upon our creation and redemption by his power, his 
wisdom, and his love, cover our whole being, so by 
complying with those claims we can only secure our 
highest well-being. This is true of our physical 
nature. We all know that sin in many instances 
has blurred, defiled, defaced, brutalized, and de- 
stroyed the body; how, that by impurity, intoxica- 
tion, gormandizing, and abuse, this beautiful frame- 
work has been marred. Anger, malice, hate, revenge, 
remorse, envy, covetousness, have left their stamp 
upon the countenance. The eye has become blood- 
shot, the limbs prematurely trembling, the blood 
poisoned, the nerves shattered, and the delicate tis- 
sues of the brain inflamed and deranged by intem- 
perance. How it has been prostituted for the vilest 
and most unworthy purposes, deformed by the 
hand of fashion, or dressed like a doll, or disguised 
by a horrid mask ! But the consecrated body is 
separated from all vile uses and purposes. It "is 
the temple of the Holy Ghost. " And, although 
often frail and feeble and homely in its features, yet 
the indwelling Spirit makes the eye to glint with 
his light, and the countenance to glow with his ra- 
diance, and the whole features to be overspread with 
his own loveliness and beauty. I do not mean to 
say, of course, that the body of the truly consecrated 



44 



SERMONS. 



child of God will attain to the strength of the prize- 
fighter, or the swiftness of the pedestrian, or the 
so-called grace of the danseuse ; but it will be a 
consecrated body. 

Nor do I mean to say that the body, which 
before its consecration to God had been wasted by 
disease, or poisoned by alcohol, or exhausted by de- 
bauchery, or brutalized by lusts, will be entirely 
delivered from the legitimate, and, in a sense, neces- 
sary results of its previous conditions. Kb. Xone 
of these things. But what I mean to say is this: 
That the consecrated body will no more, forever, be 
brutalized by lusts, or swollen and disfigured by in- 
toxication, or its throat be a chimney for the smoke, 
and its mouth a filth v mass of tobacco, or worn out 
by gormandizing, or shattered by dissipation, or 
frittered away by carking cares and overburdening 
anxieties. And, further, that if this consecration 
occur in early life, it will tend to produce those 
habits of cleanliness, temperance, chastity, and those 
habits of economy and thrift, which will supply 
suitable clothing and food, and proper hours of 
sleep, so that long life will be generally the legit- 
imate result. This, indeed, is promised. "What 
man is he that loveth life, and desireth many days 
that he may see good?" "Keep thy tongue from 
evil and thy lips from speaking guile ; depart from 
evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it," etc. 
"With long life will I satisfy him and show him 
my salvation." " Length of days is in her [wis- 
dom's] right hand." "That thy days may be long 



ENTIRE CONSECRATION. 



45 



upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth 
thee." 

The body which belongs wholly to God will 
attain to its highest condition, and best subserve 
the end for which it was created. So also with our 
mental powers. Grace will enlarge and expand 
them, and all will be employed for the honor and 
glory of God. The consecrated man may not have 
the most brilliant natural powers, or the most re- 
splendent genius. It is not the mere accumulation 
of vast stores of learning or the splendid corusca- 
tions of genius which are the most highly prized by 
God. is"o. "With the talents of an angel a man 
may still be a fool f while many a saint with hum- 
bler powers and scanty stores of human learning 
may be truly wise in the sight of God. 

He has the highest kind of knowledge, the basis, 
indeed, of all other knowledge. He knows God, 
and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. And, as far 
as possible, he will desire to know every thing that 
will illustrate his character, his word, and his works. 
The truly consecrated Christian will endeavor to 
improve his mind to the utmost of its capability, 
and of his opportunity. Those capabilities may not 
be great, and those opportunities may be few, but 
he will employ them all in the acquirement of 
knowledge. His time will not be wasted in novel- 
reading or in poring over nonsensical, and very 
often impure and obscene, stories. He will only 
read and study what will be for the glory of God. 
He is the Lord's, not only for time, but also for 



46 



SERMONS. 



eternity. He is preparing for a purer, higher, no- 
bler sphere of being. And he sees before him a 
whole eternity for the development of his powers, 
and his growth in every department of knowledge. 
Then, in the consecrated mind and heart, the Holy 
Ghost abides, enlightening and clarifying the under- 
standing, curbing, controlling, and chastening the 
imagination, counseling and directing the judg- 
ment, strengthening the memory, and guiding the 
man of God into all truth. But if he never knows 
any thing about theology, books of science and liter- 
ature, he knows by experimental tests the truths of 
his Bible, and the preciousness and power of his 
Savior. 

This is neither an argument nor a plea for igno- 
rance ; but to show how these devoted pow T ers may at- 
tain to their highest earthly condition. Cowper thus 
contrasts the condition of a poor widow and Voltaire : 

" She, for her humble sphere by nature fit. 
Has little understanding and no wit, 
Eeceives no praise, but though her lot be such 
(Toilsome and indigent) she renders much. 
Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true, — 
A truth the ^brilliant Frenchman never knew; 
And in that charter reads with sparkling eyes 
Her title to a treasure in the skies. 
happy peasant ! O unhappy bard! 
His the mere tinsel, hers the rich reward ; 
He, praised perhaps for ages yet to come; 
She, never heard of half a mile from home; 
He, lost in errors his vain heart prefers ; 
She, safe in the simplicity of hers." 

But, above all, our moral powers will reach their 
highest condition. The will will be in harmony 



ENTIRE CONSECRATION. 



47 



with God's — the affections supremely and forever 
centered in him — the conscience ever answering to 
his voice, quick and pure and calm and peaceful. 
So shall the will of God be done by him upon the 
earth, as it is in heaven. 

3. Only by so doing can we reach the highest 
state of blessedness of which our being is capable. The 
sinful, worldly, ambitious and sensual man, each 
has his pleasures. It is not true to say that the 
world has no joy, and sin has no pleasure. There 
are, to unrenewed men, pleasures of sense, of taste, 
and smell and sound and sight and sensual gratifi- 
cation. There are also pleasures of mind, of the 
memory, imagination, understanding, and of the 
powers of ratiocination, of analysis and synthesis. 
There are also pleasures of the heart, the hearth, 
and the home. Indeed, God often permits wicked 
men to have many pleasures and comforts of which 
his people are deprived. But, after all this is ad- 
mitted, the voice of God is confirmed by the voice 
of universal history and experience, that " the world 
can never give the bliss for which we sigh." All 
the pleasures which man can derive from wealth, 
honor and sensual gratification are as nothing in 
comparison with the bliss which the humble saint 
of God enjoys. One hour of communion with God, 
of the conscious sense of sonship and heirship, of 
the light of God's countenance and the glory of his 
smile, of the unspeakable peace and the unutterable 
joy of the Holy Ghost, full of exultant hope of the 
eternal life, infinitely outweighs all the transitory 



48 



SERMONS. 



pleasures which earth can give. Such bliss is the 
bliss of the saints; aye, more, it is the bliss of the 
angels; aye, more, it is the bliss, the joy of God! 

if I could call down an angel from the throne 
now! (But I have no need to do this, for they are 
here.) Yet, if I could make one to appear before 
you, and speak to you, I would ask him, "What 
makes you so happy? Why is eternal sunshine 
upon your face? Why is heaven ever beaming from 
your eye? Why is your overflowing heart ever 
bursting forth in songs of joy ?" Would he not 
answer, substantially, "Because I am wholly the 
Lord's, and all my powers are ceaselessly employed 
in his service?" So will it be with us if we are 
wholly given up to God. 

4. Only by so doing can we attain to the greatest 
degree of usefulness. Our real usefulness will be pro- 
portioned to the degree of our devotion to Christ. 

1 know that I shall be met here, right on the thres- 
hold of this statement, by the counter-assertion that 
many ministers of evidently little piety have been 
greatly successful as evangelists, and have been in- 
strumental in the conversion of more persons than 
some who are known to possess greater piety. There 
have been instances of this kind, I know, which 
have staggered the faith of many a truly devoted 
minister. But, after all, has not this so-called use- 
fulness been more apparent than real? Have not 
the results been ephemeral ? Or, if permanent, have 
not the real agents been kept out of sight, while 
the visible agent has received the glory and the 



ENTIRE CONSECRATION. 



49 



applause ? But, on the other hand, is it not true — 
true as the Word of God can make it — that his 
chosen ones, as they go forth, shall " bear fruit, and 
that their fruit shall remain?" Have not all the 
great, mighty, moral movements of the world been 
commenced and carried forward mostly by conse- 
crated men — men deeply devoted to Christ? True, 
Christians in every degree of their experience are 
useful, from the merest babe in Christ to the bright- 
est and maturest saint. But O how much more 
good we might do as ministers and as laymen and 
women of the Church if we were wholly the Lord's ! 
Here, for instance, is a machine, well-designed and , 
really of great capacity to accomplish a given result. 
But some of its parts are out of place — some of the 
wheels are clogged — -and there is friction between 
the parts. It is doing something ; but if it were in 
complete order, how much more it would accom- 
plish ! Here is a fruit tree, well shaped and planted 
in a good soil. It bears some fruit, but it is noth- 
ing to what it is capable of bearing, and the fruit is 
not of the quality which it might be. Its untrimmed 
and useless shoots are drawing away its life. Worms 
are at the root or are concealed in the bark. Now, 
let the tree be put in condition, and its branches 
will bend under the burden of iuscious fruit. Here 
is a battery ; it may be small ; it may be made, in a 
lady's thimble, of sufficient power, it is said, to send 
a single message across the Atlantic. Well done, 
little battery ! But let it be enlarged, and day and 
night it will be flashing messages over continents, 



50 



SERMONS. 



islands, and seas. So with the Christian. He is, 
he must be, useful with a little light, a little grace, 
a little power. Nor is his limited experience or 
attainment to be despised. But he knows, and we 
all know, that if that light were nearer the perfect 
day, if that grace were all-transforming and sanctify- 
ing, and if that power were greatly augmented, his 
usefulness would be immensely increased. 

III. When should this Consecration be 
made ? 

1. It should be made this day, because every 
moment of our conscious being that we have de- 
layed doing it, or have refused to do it, we have 
been defrauding God. We know that the demand 
which God makes of us is right and reasonable. 
"He justly claims us for his own." If this be so, 
then the question admits of no delay. We ought 
not, in any instance, to hesitate where right and 
moral honesty are concerned. The simple question 
settled, " Is it right ?" then every thing else should 
follow. The wonder is that we have delayed doing 
this so long. And yet, with most professing Chris- 
tians, this has not been wholly neglected. Before 
conversion there was a giving up to God — a conse- 
cration to his service; and since that time your 
minds have doubtless been frequently drawn to con- 
sider the importance of a more complete and perfect 
surrender. You have thought about it, talked and 
prayed about it, sung about it — perhaps have even 
made a formal written consecration of yourself to 
God ; but still you have felt that, after all, all is 



ENTIRE CONSECRATION. 



51 



not given up. O, then, this day let the work be 
completed! Cry out, 

"Thy ransomed servant, I 
Eestore to thee thine own ; 
And from this moment live or die 
To serve my God alone." 

2. The earlier this consecration is made the more 
acceptable will it be to God. True, the Lord will 
graciously receive the middle-aged and the aged, 
but he loves to receive the young. O ye young 
men and women, it is this early consecration which 
will make your lives beautiful and sublime. It will 
not only save you from a thousand snares, but it 
will crown you with a thousand blessings. Come, 
while the dew of youth is u]pon your brow and elas- 
ticity is in your limbs, and the life-blood leaps and 
tingles in your veins; and let this great work be 
done to-day. But none of us can begin earlier than 
noiv. Let not another moment pass, but now and 
here lay your all upon God's altar, and he will 
accept the sacrifice. 

3. We should make this consecration to-day, 
decause a whole lifetime is none too much to devote to 
God. Had we done this at the very earliest dawn 
of our responsible being, and had every day, hour, 
and moment been faithfully employed in his service, 
would it have been any too much? And if we 
begin now and employ all our powers for the glory 
of God, all our future days, and throughout the 
countless cycles of eternity, will that be too much? 
And yet many years passed away before some of us 



52 



SERMONS. 



surrendered our all ! Yea, how many are there now 
before me who have not yet done this work ! Has- 
ten, then, with your gift to the altar. Every thing 
is in readiness for you. The cleansing blood, the 
sanctifying Spirit, the immutable promises, and the 
attendant angels are ready just now to hail you as 
a sealed and sanctified follower of Jesus. 

4. To do this work to-day will settle a question 
which has kept you in agitation and trouble for 
years. You can not dismiss it from your mind. It 
stares you in the face wherever you look. If you 
open your Bible, it is pressed upon you there. If 
you go to pray, the Holy Ghost brings it before 
you there. If you sing, nearly every hymn speaks 
of it. If you regard God your Father, you see his 
claims upon you. If you look to the cross of Jesus, 
you hear him say, "All this I have done for thee; 
what hast thou done for me?" Thus has it been 
for years gone by. You have resolved and resolved, 
again and again, that you would do it. And then 
when the moment has come you have hesitated, 
squirmed, halted, delayed. Now let the question be 
settled, once and forever. 

"This day the covenant I sign, 

The bond of sure and promised peace, 
Nor can I doubt its power divine, 

Since sealed with Jesus' blood it is. 
That blood I take, that blood alone, 
And make the covenant mine own." 

If this is done, then the question is settled for- 
ever. It will be easy to repeat what has once been 
thoroughly done. And your soul will exult in the 



ENTIRE CONSECRATION. 



53 



blessed assurance, "My beloved is mine and I 
am his." 

Who, then, is willing to consecrate his service 
this day unto the Lord? How many of this vast 
throng, deeply convinced of the rightfulness, the 
reasonableness and the necessity of doing this work, 
are ready to do it now? Do not say, "I am not pre- 
pared to do it now." What! are you not prepared 
to do right? Must you wait longer to consider 
whether you will be honest? I press the claims of 
my God upon you. I call upon you for a decision. 
One moment now of halting, hesitation, or refusal 
may mar your whole Christian character and blight 
your religious life. O that there may be multitudes, 
multitudes, this day in the valley of decision! O 
you will do it! Yes, we will give up all to thee, O 
Lord! Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, witness to 
our surrender and seal our sacrifice. Now apply 
the blood. Now, Holy Ghost, descend! 



54 



SERMONS. 



III. 

SANCTIFIED THROUGH THE TRUTH. 

Text: "Sanctify them through thy truth : thy word is truth. 
As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them 
into the world. And for their Bakes I sanctify myself, that they 
also might be sanctified through the truth," — John xvii, 17-19. 

This prayer stands at the close of the conversation 
of our Lord with his disciples, which is recorded 
in the last three chapters. It has been generally 
regarded as the model of our Lord's intercessory 
prayer for his people and the world, as he now offers 
it before the throne. Hence it has been called the 
oratio sacerdotalis, or the sacerdotal prayer. It is 
inimitable in its sweetness and tenderness. It is the 
outbreathing of the heart of infinite love. "Just 
as the Jewish high-priest was required to make in- 
tercessions for himself, for his household, the priests 
and Levites, and for the whole nation, so our all- 
sufficient High -priest, on this his great day of 
atonement, solemnly interceded with God, his Fa- 
ther, for himself, that he might be received into 
glory- — his original glory in heaven; for his house- 
hold, the apostles and disciples, that God would 
preserve them in his name, give them a spirit of 
unity and concord, and protect them in and from, 
the wicked world; also for all future believers, 



SAXCT1FIED THROUGH THE TRUTH. 



55 



through their preaching, that they might be endued 
with the same spirit of unity ; and for the whole 
world, that it might be converted ; and that, finally, 
they might partake of his glory in heaven, as well 
as be supported by his love and presence on earth. ,r * 
With this understanding of the import of the 
prayer as a whole, we come now to consider the 
specific petition contained in the text : 

I. The object for which our Lord Jesus Christ, 
as our great High -priest, here prays — " sanctify 
thera;" " that they may be sanctified truly " 

1. The word u sanctify n has two meanings: first, 
to separate, consecrate, or devote to any purpose or 
person ; secondly, to hallow, or make holy. In the 
first definition it refers to the work which man, 
aided by the divine Spirit, is required to perform, 
whether in consecrating his person or his property 
to God. In its second definition it refers only to 
the work of God by his Spirit in the soul. God 
requires that every one shall thus devote himself to 
his service. This is to be done cheerfully, without 
any limitation or mental reservation. There are 
many who often go as far as this. With the utmost 
punctiliousness, and sometimes with a legalistic spirit, 
they go over the inventory of their little all. Some- 
times, even, it is written out fully, and signed : and 
yet this brings no relief, no peace or joy to the soul. 
All this is for two reasons : first, they do this not 
as a means, but as an end; and/ secondly, they do 
not believe that God will now accept the offering 

*"Life and Writings of St John," by McDonald. 



56 



SERMONS. 



which they make, and sanctify them wholly. So 
we see that however important consecration may be, 
and is, it is not sanctification — it is only a condition 
of sanctification. 

To be sanctified, according to Mr. Wesley, is to 
be fully saved from pride, self-will, anger, and un- 
belief. It is loving the Lord God with all the 
heart. It is to be saved from the root of sin, and 
to be restored to the image of God. Mr. Watson 
says : " It is that work of God's grace whereby we 
are renewed after the image of God, set apart for 
his service, and enabled to die unto sin and to live 
unto righteousness." Our Catechism says : u Sanc- 
tification is that act of divine grace whereby we are 
made holy." Dr. Hodge says : " It is the removing 
more and more of the principles of evil, still infest- 
ing our nature, and destroying their power; and the 
growth of the principle of spiritual life until it con- 
trols the thoughts, feelings, and actions, and brings 
the soul into conformitv to the imao-e of God." 
These definitions cover the whole ground, both from 
the Wesleyan and the Calvinistic stand-point. 

We see, then, that this is something more than 
the act of the person by which he devotes him- 
self to God; and that, in its deeper, fuller signifi- 
cance, it includes the mighty operation of divine 
grace in making the self-devoted person holy. When 
one consecrates himself to God, he is to do it that 
he may be in a condition to believe, and receive the 
cleansing blood and the sanctifying Spirit. This 
act of faith is essential. If it is not exercised, all 



SANCTIFIED THROUGH THE TRUTH 57 



up to this point may be in vain ; and the person, 
however honest he may have been in his consecra- 
tion, will likely return to his former life and his 
crooked paths. There is, usually, some final test to 
which the soul is brought before this act of faith is 
exercised. It may be something about our apparel, 
or our habits, or our business, or our social or do- 
mestic life. It may be our selfishness, our covetous- 
ness, our pride, our reputation, or our companionships. 
Or it may be some cross which we have hesitated to 
take up, to testify of Christ, to preach his Gospel, 
or to go as a missionary to foreign lands. Or it may 
be that we shall he called upon to make reparation 
for some injury done to another, or restitution for 
some wrong in business life. Whatever God in his 
Word, or by his Spirit, makes clear to us that we 
must give up, must bear, or do, we are to yield 
to the divine requirement cheerfully and readily; 
or sometimes it will be done after a long-contin- 
ued struggle. 

But when this point is yielded faith will spring 
up in the soul ; and the hallowing presence and 
power of the blood of the Lamb and of the Eternal 
Spirit will be consciously realized and enjoyed. It 
is of interest for us to notice here — 

2. For whom does Christ pray f It was, first of 
all, for his disciples. What were their character 
and condition at that time? Were they regenerate? 
Some think they w r ere not. But if we will regard 
what is said of them in this prayer we shall see that 
this is not a correct view. In verse 6 Christ says : 



58 



SERMONS. 



"They were given him out of the world, and that 
they had kept his word." Verse 8 : " They had 
believed that the Father had sent him." Verse 9 : 
" They are thine." Verse 10 : "I am glorified in 
them." Verse 12: "I have kept them in thy name." 
Verse 14 : " They are not of the world." Verse 22 : 
"The glory which thou gavest me, I have given 
them." And in a previous chapter he had said: 
" Now ye are clean through the word which I have 
spoken unto you." On this Sehaff says : " I have 
washed your feet. More than this, I have preached 
to you my cleansing truth, and ye are comparatively 
pure men. Ye are clean objectively, as being justi- 
fied in Christ; in need of cleansing subjectively, as 
to your sanctification." This, doubtless, is the cor- 
rect view of their religious and spiritual condition 
at this time. It is for them, then, in a justified and 
regenerated state, that Christ thus prays. 

But while they were in this condition and rela- 
tion, they were evidently very weak and ignorant 
men. They were contentious, ambitious, doubting, 
and unbelieving — "foolish and slow of heart to 
believe." So now. There are many persons who 
are good and true; but who are very peculiar, ec- 
centric, full of frailties and weaknesses — ignorant, 
uncouth, erratic, unpolished, rough diamonds; but 
diamonds after all. They realize there are remain- 
ing corruptions in their heart, and they sigh and 
long for deliverance. Our criticisms of their Chris- 
tian character and life are often very harsh and 
unjust; but Jesus loves them, and prays that they 



SANCTIFIED THROUGH THE TRUTH. 59 



may be truly and wholly sanctified. They are not 
to be discouraged because the work is not com- 
plete ; nor to give up their hope in Christ because 
they are not all they long to be. 

II. The ordained instrument by which this 
work is to be wrought — " thy truth. " 

The Word of God is the instrument of our sanc- 
tification. This is "the truth/' the sum of all truth; 
and by this God intends to accomplish this work in 
human souls. We can not place too high an esti- 
mate upon the truth of God's Word. " The Bible 
everywhere assumes that without truth there can be 
no holiness ; that all conscious exercises of spiritual 
life are in view of truth objectively revealed in the 
Scriptures. The feelings come from spiritual appre- 
hension of the truth, and not the knowledge of the 
truth from the feelings. Knowledge is necessary to 
all conscious, holy exercises. Hence the Bible makes 
truth of the greatest importance."* 

1. This truth teaches us God's will concerning its. 
This will is our law. And how clearly it declares 
to us, u This is the will of God, even your sanctifi- 
cation !" Xo command of God is more frequently 
uttered than this, " Be ye holy, for I am holy." 
There is no ambiguity about this, no mystery. All 
is clear as to what God would have us be. God is 
a holy God. Heaven is a holy place. His law 
is a holy law. And he has said that nothing un- 
holy, " nothing that defileth, neither that worketh 
abomination, or maketh a lie, shall in any wise enter" 

* Hodge, Vol. I, pp. 177-8. 



60 



SERMONS. 



into his holy dwelling-place. Thus his will is most 
clearly expressed. 

2. This divine Word presents before us the 
infinite provisions made for the accomplishment of this 
work. Hence it is said, " Christ loved the Church, 
and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and 
cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 
that he might present it to himself a glorious 
Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such 
thing." And in that grandest evangel ever pro- 
claimed in our world it is said, " The blood of 
Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin." 
Here is the grand provision, presented clearly before 
our eyes — a provision that is ample, infinite, and 
free ; a provision that is now made ; a fountain 
of blood now opened ; the Holy Ghost now given. 
And while rites and rituals and baptisms of water 
or costly offerings can not take away sin, Christ's 
blood can take it away, and it can take it away 
now. So the truth says. So speaks the divine 
Word. 

3. It also presents to us the promises which 
assure us that God will do this work for us. How 
wonderfully Peter speaks of these promises when 
he says : " Whereby are given unto us exceeding 
great and precious promises ; that by these ye might 
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped 
the corruption that is in the world through lust." 
What a beautiful climax the apostle reaches here! 
There are promises, great promises, exceeding great 
promises, and, finally, " exceeding great and precious 



SANCTIFIED THROUGH THE TRUTH 61 



promises." And well does Paul respond : u Having 
these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse our- 
selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, per- 
fecting holiness in the fear of God." Ezekiel, in 
looking forward to the Gospel days and the resto- 
ration of Israel, says, as the mouth-piece of God : 
" Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and 
ye shall be clean ; from all your filthiness and from 
all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also 
will I give unto you, and a new spirit will I put 
within you : and I will take away the stony heart 
out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of 
flesh." These promises and assurances are the ground 
of our faith, immutable and eternal. We are not 
to believe that we are holy in order to be holy; but 
that God, for the sake of his Son, and in the fulfill- 
ment of his promises, will make us holy. Thus it 
it is that we are sanctified by the truth ; and thus 
we see that we could not be sanctified without it. 

III. But Christ also indicates in his prayer 
WHAT HE has done that his people may be truly 
sanctified: "For their sakes I sanctify myself, that 
they also might be sanctified through the truth." 

1. He sanctified himself, set himself apart for his 
great work for humanity, devoted his all to this 
work. For this he took upon him our nature, be- 
came bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. Hence 
the apostle says ! " For both he that sanctifieth and 
they who are sanctified are all of one ; for which 
cause he is not ashamed to call theni brethren." 
And when he had taken our nature, a human soul 



62 



SERMONS. 



and a human body, he set them apart unweari- 
edly and perfectly to accomplish this work. Nei- 
ther his soul nor body was withheld from any 
sorrow, or suffering, or pain, or blood-shedding, or 
ignominy, or reproach, or disgrace, that he might 
" finish the w T ork which was given him to do." 
They said it of him in reproach — but how truly 
they said it ! — as he hung, a bleeding victim, on the 
cross : " He saved others : himself he can not save." 
No; he could not, did not, save himself. 

2. He offered himself up, only a few hours after 
this prayer was uttered, in sacrifice for this purpose. 
This whole view bursts upon us as we read the 
tenth of Hebrews : " Then said he, Lo I come to 
do thy will, O God. . . . By the which will we 
are sanctified, through the offering of the body of 
Jesus Christ once for all." Again: " For by one 
offering, he hath perfected forever them that are 
sanctified." Yet more: "Wherefore Jesus also, that 
he might sanctify the people with his own blood, 
suffered without the gate." " For if the blood of 
bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer, 
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying 
of the flesh ; how much more [ye angels, can ye 
tell?] shall the blood of Christ, who through the 
Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, 
purge your consciences from dead works to serve 
the living God?" These quotations must suffice 
here. How clearly they indicate what Christ has 
done for us ! 

3. This is the burden of his intercessory prayer 



SANCTIFIED THROUGH THE TRUTH 63 



for his people before the throne. Day and night, in 
all seasons, this great purpose is never lost sight of. 
His blood not only has made it possible for us to 
be* sanctified; but it pleads forever that we may be. 
His presence before the throne ; his sacerdotal vest- 
ments, " dipped in blood ;" his oral intercessions, 
"Sanctify them through thy truth," — all, all show- 
to us not only the importance of this work, but the 
blessed possibility, through what he has done and 
suffered for us, that we may thus be made holy. 

4. Then, too, He has procured for us the agency 
of the Holy Spirit, who accomplishes, effectively, 
this work in us. " If I depart," he said, " I will 
send him unto you." And he has come to our 
world, has come to his Church, has come to "abide 
with us forever." How beautifully Paul blends the 
utterance of this prayer and the work of the Spirit 
in 2 Thessalonians ii, 13 — " God hath from the be- 
ginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctifi- 
cation of the Spirit" — as the effective agency, and 
" belief of the truth " as the instrument of solva- 
tion! And Peter, in like manner, recognizes this 
fact in addressing the " sojourners of the dispersion :" 
" Elect according to the foreknowledge of God, 
through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience 
and sprinkling of the blood of Christ." The Holy 
Spirit, as "the executive of the Godhead," is the 
great Sanctifier. 

Three great purposes are mentioned by the 
Savior as the results of the answer to this prayer. 

1. The unity of the Church. Holiness is the only 



64 



SERMONS. 



real basis of the unity of the Church. Hence the 
Savior almost immediately follows his petition for 
the sanetilieation of his people with- a prayer for 
their unity. The two factors are inseparably united. 
Without holiness all efforts at real unity will be 
fruitless and vain. With it unity is not only a pos- 
sibility, but a reality. Hence all evangelical alli- 
ance meetings ; all mere speeches about the desira- 
bleness and the blessedness and beauty of union 
among Christians ; all resolutions, however beauti- 
fully expressed, will and must fail, unless based 
upon this essential principle. 

Wherever this principle of holiness exists, it 
will overleap all denominational barriers and dis- 
tinctions, and clasp with warmest ardor the hand of 
all who u love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." 
This transcends all ecclesiastical claims, all hier- 
archical exclusiveness and bigotry, and regards 
every one who is in Christ as a brother, no matter 
what the formula of his doctrines, or what the forms 
of his worship. It is true that Ronie has a boasted 
and seeming unity. But it is a unity maintained 
by despotic power, by the pressure of pains and 
penalties for all who violate her orders or com- 
mands. But the religion of Christ is a religion of 
love ; and love is the everlasting bond uniting in 
one all God's saints. Well did Castelar say in the 
Spanish Cortes a few years since, " Mighty is the 
religion of power; but the religion of love is al- 
mighty." All may not, can not think alike, or wor- 
ship alike ; but all can love alike. And holiness, 



SANCTIFIED THROUGH THE TRUTH. 



65 



sanctification, is love — perfect love to God and per- 
fect love to the brethren. 

2. The salvation of the world. The unity follow- 
ing from holiness was to be the great demonstration 
to the world of the truth and the divinity of His 
religion — "That the world may believe that thou 
hast sent me." And not only believe it, but also 
know it (verse 23). What the world needs to. con- 
vince it of the truth of religion, to destroy infidel- 
ity and error, is a holy ministry and a holy Church. 
Infidelity can not withstand the force and power of 
this argument. It quails in the presence of such a 
demonstration. When God made his Son a minis- 
ter, he " sanctified him and sent him into the world." 
(John x, 36.) So he designs that all his ministers 
should be holy men. A worldly minister is an 
anomaly, an incongruity. God has no place for such 
a man in his Church. But, O, how many such there 
are at the present time ! The worldly Churches de- 
mand them. They want some one who stands upon 
the same level with themselves ; who will whitewash 
their sepulchers, " full of rottenness and dead men's 
bones who will apologize for their characters and 
condone their offenses. And many so-called 1 minis- 
ters of Christ have been dragged down to the mire 
and filth of worldliness and fashion and pride and 
unbelief and indifference ; while together, as minis- 
ter and people, they present a pitiable sight in the 
eyes of God and heaven. But a holy Church and 
a holy ministry, while they will antagonize the 
world, will conquer it for Christ. Not all among 



66 



SERMONS. 



whom they may labor, not all where such a Church 
may exist may be saved; but they will shake this 
world, and "turn it upside down." If the world is 
ever saved, these are the visible agencies which are 
to accomplish the work, and no others can do it. 

3. That his disciples may be with him where he is, 
and see him as he is. "I will that they also, whom 
thou hast given me, be with me where I am ; that 
they may behold my glory, which thou hast given 
me." Stier says that Christ in this way made his 
will. And what a blessed will it is! Holiness not 
only fits us for "the life that now is," but also for 
the " life which is to come." And not only has Christ 
provided for our sanctification, but he has promised 
to keep us unto eternal life. And he " is able to 
keep us from falling, and to preserve us unto his 
everlasting kingdom." Some persons say, " If I 
were to experience sanctification I could not retain 
it." But suppose you knew that you would perse- 
vere, what would you do now? Would you not 
begin at once? would you not now devote yourself 
wholly to God ? Well, then, do this honestly and 
fully, and keep on doing it, and you will surely 
persevere. Certainly, if you never begin you will 
never persevere. If you do not take hold of Christ 
as a full Savior you can not hold out. And this 
grace will keep you ; you do not have to keep your- 
self. Jesus says, " I have kept them." Well does 
a Kempis say, " He rideth easily enough whom the 
grace of God carrieth." And if Christ keeps us we 
are surely safe enough. O, then, may the prayer of 



SANCTIFIED THROUGH THE TRUTH 67 



Christ be answered for us to-day ! Now, while you 
read, may you make the consecration, and realize 
the cleansing blood and the sanctifying Spirit ! And 
if we are thus truly sanctified and kept there will 
be no difficulty about our admission into heaven. 
The gates of pearl will be opened wide to receive 
us; and we shall enter in, and "see the King in 
his beauty." 

" I shall behold his face ; 

I shall his power adore, 
And shout the wonders of his grace 
For evermore." 
7 



68 



SERMONS. 



CLEANSED BY THE BLOOD. 

Text: "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from 
all sm." — 1 John, i, 7. 

The words of our text contain one of the most 
remarkable and, at the same time, one of the most 
heart-cheering announcements ever made to our sin- 
stricken humanity. They present before us the 
only foundation of our hope of pardon, purity, and 
eternal life. All along the ages men have been 
groaning under the burden and the bondage of sin, 
and sighing for deliverance from its guilt and power. 
The earth has been darkened with the smoke of 
innumerable altars, and crimsoned with the blood 
of countless victims. But in the midst of this uni- 
versal unrest this blessed evangel breaks upon our 
ears. No one can or dares to say, 66 1 have no sin," 
"I have not sinned." But all can say, "I am 
redeemed." " There is a fountain of blood in which 
I can w T ash away my sin." So these two great facts 
on the manward side, and these two great facts on 
the Godward side stand confronting each other: 
"I have sin;" "I have sinned" — "the blood of 
Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin ;" and 
"if we confess and forsake our sins he is faithful 



CLEANSED BY THE BLOOD. 



69 



and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us 
from all unrighteousness." Here, then, is the am- 
plest and freest provision for the pardon of our sins 
and the washing away of our impurities and defile- 
ments. These two great facts will now engage our 
attention : The blood of Christ the Son of God, 
and its cleansing power. 

I. The Blood of Christ. 

1. In all the ages the blood of beasts and birds, 
and especially of men, has been regarded as of pecu- 
liar, and, in multitudes of instances, as of sacred, 
value. The blood of the murdered Abel assumed a 
voice, and called out from the ground for vengeance. 
In the original grant made to Xoah concerning the 
use of animal food, the eating of blood was ex- 
pressly forbidden. " But flesh with the life thereof, 
which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." And 
this command w r as re-enforced with the most solemn 
and fearful penalties attached in the Sinaitic laws. 
Again, from the very infancy of time the law of 
blood for blood, and life for life, was a governing 
principle among the nations. So God speaks of it 
to his ancient people: "And surely your blood of 
your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast 
will I require it, and at the hand of man. At the 
hand of every man's brother will I require the life 
of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall 
his blood be shed." And mark the reason for this : 
"For in the image of God made he man." 

Madame de Stael has well said, "Xothing in 
effect can obliterate from the soul the idea that there 



70 



SERMONS. 



is a mysterious efficacy in the blood of the innocent, 
and that heaven and earth are moved by it." There 
seems to be no physiological reason for the forbid- 
ding of the use of the blood of birds and beasts, 
nor is it easy to present clearly a moral reason for 
it; it is evidently founded upon the idea of the 
sacredness of blood and its efficacy. 

2. This was God's chosen sign or symbol in the 
deliverance of his people from Egyptian bondage. 
On that dark and terrible night, when the destroy- 
ing angel was to pass over the doomed land, and 
there was not to be an Egyptian home but in which 
there would be one dead, there was only one way 
of deliverance for Israel. They were ordered, in 
each family, to slay a lamb without blemish, and to 
take the blood in a basin and sprinkle it upon the 
upper door-post and the two side posts of their 
dwellings. And it was promised to them for a 
token, that when "I see the blood I will pass over 
you, and the plague shall not be upon you to de- 
stroy you when I smite the land of Egypt." In 
other words, the blood of the lamb was the redemp- 
tion of the first-born of Israel. It is in reference 
to this fact that Paul says: "For even Christ, our 
Passover, is sacrificed for us." 

3. The blood of the victims slain under the Mo- 
saical dispensation was declared to be an atonement 
for the soul. "For the life of the flesh is in the 
blood, and I have given it unto you upon the altar 
to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the 
blood which maketh atonement for the soul." (Lev. 



CLEANSED BY THE BLOOD. 



71 



xvii, 11.) This, doubtless, was emblematical of the 
great fact that the race was to be redeemed by the 
blood of Christ. So the blood of beasts and birds 
was kept constantly streaming. It was blood, blood, 
blood. The altars were constantly flowing with it, 
and the pavements and walls of the temple were 
ever crimsoned with it. On the great day of atone- 
ment, and of the Passover, as well as at Pentecost, 
thousands of sheep and oxen were slain, and their 
blood caught by the priests and poured upon the 
altar, so that the secret channels, so recently dis- 
covered, must have often " gurgled with blood." 
The apostle tells us, Heb. ix, 18-22 : " Neither the 
first tabernacle was dedicated without blood. Moses 
took the blood of calves and goats and sprinkled 
both the book a$d all the people. He sprinkled 
with blood the tabernacle and all the vessels of the 
ministry. And almost all things are by the law 
purged with blood; and without shedding of blood 
there is no remission." 

Nor was this idea peculiar to the Jews. Nearly 
all the Ethnic religions were sanguineous. All 
have demanded sacrifices of animals and birds, and 
some of men, women, and children. In the Egyp- 
tian mythology it is said that "the sun-god muti- 
lated himself, and that from the stream of his blood 
he created all things." It is said of Belus, the 
supreme deity of the Babylonians, that he "cut off 
his own head that the blood flowing from it might 
be mixed with the dust out of which men were to 
be formed." The Carthaginians, at the crisis of 



72 



SERMONS. 



their struggle with Rome, devoted to the anger of 
their gods four hundred of the sons of their prin- 
cipal nobles. Thus human sacrifices, which orig- 
inated among the Semitic nations, passed among the 
Greeks and other peoples. Human sacrifices were 
not abolished from Rome until about 400 B. C. We 
all know that the religion of the Aztecs demanded 
that human hearts, taken dexterously from the 
breasts of living human beings, should be laid upon 
the altar of their war-god. With these general facts 
before us, I advance to consider 

4. The historical fact that Christ shed his blood 
in Gethsemane and on Calvary, and the evangelical 
interpretation of that fact. The statement is made 
in the Gospels that Christ, in the garden, " being in 
an agony, his sweat was, as it were, great drops of 
blood falling down to the ground;" that is, his 
sweat was tinged and colored with his blood. So 
in Pilate's court -yard, under the scourging, he 
must have lost much blood. It doubtless trickled 
down his face when the thorny crown was pressed 
upon his brow. So when the spikes were driven 
through his hands and feet, on the cross, the blood 
must have flowed freely. And when the soldier 
pierced his side, " forthwith came out blood and 
water." Thus the fact is most clearly as well as 
inferentially stated, that Christ's blood was shed. 

Now the inquiry arises, Why was his blood shed? 
And the whole of revelation is employed in answer- 
ing it. It says that it was necessary; made neces- 
sary on account of sin. So the divine ordination 



CLEANSED BY THE BLOOD. 



73 



was that "without shedding of blood there is no 
remission." And the Son of God declared, "The 
Son of man must suffer many things and be put 
to death." 

Again, Christ's act was voluntary. He declared, 
"I have power to lay down my life, and I have 
power to take it again." And when he was arrested 
by the temple guard he said to his over-zealous 
disciple, "Thinkest thou that I can not now pray 
to my Father, and he shall presently give me more 
than twelve legions of angels?" Thus it will be 
readily seen that Christ might have prevented his 
death if he had chosen so to do. But he voluntarily 
" humbled himself and became obedient unto death, 
even the death of the cross." Furthermore, before 
he entered upon his work Christ clearly foresaw the 
sufferings and death he must endure. And these 
things were present to his mind during every period 
of his ministry. All along his ministry he told his 
disciples what he must suffer. At the Last Supper 
he said, "This cup is my blood of the New Testa- 
ment, shed for many for the remission of sins." He 
said to the Jewish people, "And I, if I be lifted up, 
will draw all men unto me." And the evangelist 
explains by saying, "This he said, signifying by 
what death he should die." Here, then, in brief is 
the fact as presented before us in the Gospel. 

But this is not all. If Christ's death was vol- 
untary, it was either a suicide or a sacrifice. ~No man 
has the right voluntarily to give up his life when 
he has the power to prevent its destruction, unless 



74 



SERMONS. 



it is done vicariously, for his country, his family, 
his friends, or in the interests of humanity. Now 
it is clearly evident that Christ had the power to pre- 
vent his death. But he did not do it. His Father 
did not do it. True, he prayed in Gethsemane, " If 
it be possible, let this cup pass from me." Thrice 
that prayer was uttered, but there was no response. 
The heavens were silent to his plea. Did I say there 
was no response ? Yes, there was an angel sent from 
heaven to strengthen him, not to take aw r ay the cup, 
but to help him drink it. Then, on the cross, he 
cried out, " My God ! my God ! why hast thou for- 
saken me?" And yet, weak, faint, feeble, dying, no 
response was made to that piteous cry. Wonderful 
scene ! Seemingly a strange paradox ! He died vol- 
untarily, and yet he must die. If his death, then, 
was not that of a suicide, it was a vicarious sacrifice. 
So God\s Word declares it to be a sacrifice for the 
sins of the world. 

All this is in accordance with the teachings of 
the Pauline, Petrine, and Johannic epistles. Paul 
says, "In whom we have redemption through his 
blood, even the forgiveness of sins." "Whom God 
hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in 
his blood." He speaks also of the " Church of God, 
which he hath purchased with his own blood." John 
says, in the text, " The blood of Jesus Christ his 
Son cleanseth us from all sin." In writing from 
Patmos he breaks forth in the grand anthem of 
praise: "Unto Him that loved us and washed us 
from our sins in his own blood." He also represents 



CLEANSED BY THE BLOOD. 



75 



to us the whole of the Church triumphant as singing, 
"Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by 
thy blood." And Peter says, " Ye were not redeemed 
with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with 
the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without 
blemish and without spot." 

Thus we see that the salvation, the cleansing from 
all sin, is not because of Christ's teachings or of his 
spotless example or his wonderful life or his more 
wonderful death, that death being considered simply 
as that of a martyr, but by his blood. Well does 
Krummacher ask : "What avails the blood of Christ ?" 
"It avails," he answers, "w T hat mountains of good 
works heaped up by us, what columns of the incense 
of prayer, curling up from our lips toward heaven, 
and what streams of tears of penitence gushing from 
our eyelids, never could avail : i The blood of Jesus 
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin/ One will 
say: "Helps us to cleanse ourselves, perhaps?" No, 
cleanseth us. "Furnishes the motive and the obli- 
gation for us to cleanse ourselves ?" No, it cleanseth 
us. 6 Cleanseth us from the desire to sin?' No, 
cleanseth us from sin itself. " Cleanseth us from the 
sin of inactivity in the work of personal improve- 
ment?" No, from all sin. "But do you say the 
blood does this?" Yes, the blood. "The doctrine 
of Christ you must mean?" No, his blood. "His 
example it is?" His blood, his blood. 

II. We now come to the inquiry, "Why is it said 
that this blood has such cleansing power ?" I answer : 

1. Because it is something more valuable and effica- 



76 



SERMONS. 



cious than the sacrifices of the law, or the blood of 
a mere man. So the text says. It is " the blood 
of Jesus Christ, his Son." Hence it is the blood 
of a divine being. Indeed, in a most important 
sense, it was divine blood. The union of the God- 
head with the humanity of Christ stamped his blood 
with an infinite merit and value. The apostle pre- 
sents the contrast between the sacrifices of the law 
and the sacrifice of Christ in the most vivid manner 
when he says : u For if the blood of bulls and goats 
and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanc- 
tifieth to the purifying of the flesh ; how much more 
shall the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal 
Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge 
your conscience?" "What comparison is there be- 
tween the blood of the lambs offered in daily sacri- 
fice and "the Lamb of God, who taketh away the 
sin of the world?" All the blood poured upon 
Jewish altars could not take away sin; but Jesus' 
blood cleanseth from all sin. 

2. It has made provision whereby all men may 
be completely purified from their sin and guilt. The 
provision is of infinite merit, sufficient for a uni- 
verse of sinners. 

If sinners were more in number than sands upon 
the shores of the ocean, or leaves on the trees of the 
forest, or blades of grass on hill-top or meadow, or 
atoms in the universe, here is blood of sufficient 
power to cleanse them all and save them all. O, 
there is no limit to the extent or to the efficacy of 
the provision! No one of all the race is excluded. 



Cleansed by the blood. 



77 



All may come to this fountain of blood, and wash 
away all their sins. 

But it is objected to this that "our religion is a 
sanguineous religion, and hence an offense to all 
intelligent persons." Atheists and skeptics of every 
grade join in this cry. And free-religionists, within 
the last quarter of a century, have uttered the loud- 
est and most vehement cries against it. One of their 
journals, speaking of a collection of evangelical 
hymns — and especially of that grand hymn of Cow- 
per's, " There is a fountain filled with blood " — says : 
" We like every thing about the book but the the- 
ology, which is stuffed into the hymns in all possible 
ways, and which sticks out in the most offensive 
forms, even where we least expect it. Scores of 
hvmns are so saturated with 'the blood of Christ' 
that the sanguineous currents seem to drip into 
every line." Mr. Beecher, who to all intents and 
purposes is on the same line with them, said not 
long ago of the language of the text : u That thought 
of blood never did me the least good in the world. 
[I 'm afraid it never did.] The idea of blood is not 
to my taste — it pertains to the old sacrifices; the 
sheep or animal was killed, and priest, people, and 
every thing was spattered with the blood. I do 
not use that text." It is a pity he does not. 

Again, it is asked : " What connection is there 
between the blood of Christ and the cleansing of 
the soul from sin and guilt ?" " How does the 
blood of Christ cleanse from all sin ?" Has it never 
occurred to those who ask these questions that sim- 



78 



SERMONS. 



ilar language is often employed in reference to the 
interests of the Church and the nation? How often 
is it said, " The blood of the martyrs is the seed of 
the Church?" When Kossuth was in this country 
he said, in one of his addresses, " It has always been 
the fate of liberty to be baptized in blood." We 
speak frequently that " the price paid for liberty, by 
which freedom from tyranny, oppression, and bond- 
age is enjoyed, is blood." We say that our Rev- 
olutionary fathers bought our liberties with their 
blood, and that our soil is consecrated to liberty by 
that blood. More appropriate still is the language 
we use when we say that "the foul blot of slavery 
was washed from our national escutcheon by the 
blood of hundreds of thousands of our brothers, 
who were slain in the recent war of the Rebellion." 
If, then, we may justly and truly say that the blood 
of our forefathers bought our liberties; and that the 
blood of our sons and brothers washed out the deep 
and damning blot of slavery from our land, why 
should it be thought so strange if the Word of God 
declares it, and we love to repeat it in sermon and 
in song : " The blood of Jesus cleanseth us from 
all sin?" 

Is it not true that the history of every nation is 
written in blood? that the literature of every na- 
tion is steeped in blood? that the national songs of 
every land are vocal with the cry of blood? Thus 
the great law of vicarious suffering and sacrifice 
is as old as the world, and as universal as our 
humanity. And in all these instances referred 



CLEANSED BY THE BLOOD. 



79 



to the idea is that it was because blood was shed 
that nations are free; that foul, loathsome stains 
were washed out by it; and that richest blessings 
are enjoyed because it was shed. So the Word of 
God, from its Genesis to its Apocalypse, is ever 
speaking of blood. And it is everywhere said, in 
type and symbol, in sacrifice and Gospel, that, be- 
cause Christ shed his blood, not only are pardon 
and salvation proffered, but actually enjoyed ; that 
not only are defilement and impurity provisionally 
washed away by the shedding of his blood, but 
actually cleansed by the application of that blood, 
by faith on the part of the sinner as the instru- 
ment, and by the Holy Ghost as the almighty and 
efficient agent. 

The Word of God tells us of the seven-fold 
value of this blood. .We have redemption in it; 
we are justified by it ; we are washed from our sins 
in it; we are brought nigh to God by it; Christ 
has made peace by his blood ; he sanctifies the peo- 
ple with it ; and the saints overcome by it. 

But the text further says : 

3. It cleanseth from all sin. Various are the 
kinds as well as the degrees of sin. There is orig- 
inal and actual sin. There are aggravated and 
presumptuous sins. There are sins of ignorance 
and sloth. And there are secret and open sins. So 
with the degrees of sin. They are multiplied. 
There are great and small sins. There are the 
openly wicked, and the mere moral, or ungodly man. 
There are sins which strike terror into a commu- 



80 



SERMONS. 



nity, and the world shudders at their atrocity ; there 
are others which do not lie so heavily upon the 
conscience, and do not so seriously affect our fellows. 
But all willful sin is damning. " The soul that 
sinneth, it shall die." But here is a provision for 
all sin. No spot is so deep, or dark, or loathsome, 
but this blood can wash it all away. Even the 
blood-stains upon the hand of a Macbeth — which 
"all great Neptune's ocean" could not wash away, 
but which, itself, would "incarnadine all the mul- 
titudinous seas, and make the green, one red " — this 
blood of Jesus could wash away. 

"If all the sins which men have done, 
In thought, in will, in word, or deed, 
Since worlds were made, or time begun, 
Were laid on one poor sinner's head, 
The stream of Jesus' precious blood 
Could wash away the dreadful load." 

4. The provision is not only ample and free, it 
is also present It "cleanseth us." This is an ever- 
present act. It does not say, hath cleansed us, or 
will cleanse us ; but eleanseth us. It is not a single 
completed act, to last for a life-time, as the act of 
our justification, resulting from the atonement; but 
a continuous act — daily, hourly, momentarily cleans- 
ing. Frances Ridley Havergal says : " It was that 
one word, 'eleanseth/ which opened the door of 
hope and joy to me. I had never seen the force 
of the tense before, a continual present, always a 
present tense, not a present which the next moment 
becomes a past. It goes on cleansing, and I have 
no words to tell how my heart rejoices in it. Not 



CLEANSED BY THE BLOOD. 



81 



a coming to be cleansed in the fountain only ; but 
a remaining in the fountain, so that it may and can 
go on cleansing. One of the intensest moments of 
my life was when I saw the force of that word, 
( cleanseth.' " 

5. The conditions of the reception of this cleans- 
ing are presented before us in this verse : " If we 
walk in the light, as he is in the light." It is only 
the justified and regenerated believer who can thus 
walk in the light of God, in the light of his favor, 
in the light of his reconciled countenance. While 
thus walking in the light there is a revelation to 
our consciousness of the remains of sin in our hearts, 
of existing evils from which we are not yet fully 
saved. And not only so, there comes to us, through 
the teachings of the Word and the illumination of 
the Holy Spirit, a revelation of our privilege in 
Christ Jesus. Thus both the necessity and the pos- 
sibility of being cleansed from all sin are clearly 
shown to us. If, under these revealings, the soul 
will rise up and lay hold of its privilege, it will 
know the blessedness of this truth by an experience 
of it in its consciousness. 

Two great benefits of walking in the light are 
here presented before us : 

1. Fellowship with God. This may be realized by 
a regenerate soul, even while struggling against re- 
maining corruptions. These occasion no condemna- 
tion while we are longing for deliverance from 
them, and seeking, by the use of all means within 
our reach, to have them washed away. Our heavenly 



82 



SERMONS. 



Father does not withdraw his presence or his favor 
from these struggling ones. No. He walks with 
them and talks with them. And the nearer they 
get to him, and the closer their walk is with him 
the more do they see the holiness of his character 
and the loathsomeness and vileness of their own. 
The light is thus revealing, and if we are walking 
in it how soon it will lead us to the opened fountain 
where sin is all washed away. It is the greatest of 
all follies to lower the standard of justifying and 
regenerating grace in order to exalt that of heart- 
purity. No, the higher the soul rises in these con- 
ditions, the more fully it walks with God, the nearer 
it is to the conscious realization of the cleansing 
from all sin. And how blessed this fellowship is, 
even in the regenerate soul, no tongue can tell, no 
language can express. 

2. It is only while walking in the light and 
having fellowship with God that this cleansing of 
the blood can be fully realized. No unpardoned sin- 
ner can experience this; no backslidden professor 
can come into this condition at once. There are 
certain conditions which must exist before this is 
enjoyed. An unjustified man does not, can not, 
walk in the light of God; a backslider in heart or 
in life can not thus walk. The sinner must be par- 
doned and regenerated, and the backslider must be 
thoroughly reclaimed before the cleansing from all 
sin is possible. 

That this state is clearly distinct from that of 
justification and regeneration is evident, according 



CLEANSED BY THE BLOOD. 



83 



to the opinions of the most learned interpreters. 
Alford says : " This [being cleansed from all sin] is 
plainly distinguished from the forgiveness of sins, 
distinguished as a further process, as, in a word, 
sanctification, distinct from justification." Dr. Ebrard 
says : " The correct interpretation of the Greek word 
translated 'cleanseth/ by which it is understood to 
refer to the sanctifying efficacy of the blood of 
Christ, has of late been generally admitted. Cleans- 
ing must, therefore," he says, after giving several 
reasons for this view, " signify here the sanctifying 
activity of God dwelling in the believer, and this 
view is confirmed by the additional clause, 'from 
all sin.' " Lange says : " The Greek word translated 
'cleanseth' can not refer to forgiveness of sins, for 
in verse 9 it is expressly distinguished from it. The 
apostle speaks here not of the remission of the pen- 
alty of sin, of the removal of guilt, but of the 
removal of sin itself, of being made free from sin. 
The subject-matter is sanctification, not justification 
or regeneration." Dr. Diiesterdick says.: "From 
another point of view the death of Christ is the 
victory over sin itself, and his blood is the purify- 
ing factor by which sin itself, still dwelling in those 
who have been justified, is to be washed away." 

These quotations might be multiplied, and no 
doubt can be entertained of the correctness of these 
interpretations. Alford adds to the words already 
quoted from him : " This meaning, however much it 
may be supposed that justification is implied or pre- 
supposed, must be held fast here." And here we 

8 



84 



SERMONS. 



propose to hold fast. To this Mr. Wesley and the 
greatest intellects that have been associated with his 
societies have held fast. And it is only by holding 
fast here that any Church can lay full claim to hav- 
ing and teaching apostolical doctrine. 

The cleansing from all sin, then, is sanctification, 
is purity, is holiness, and is the privilege of every 
believer walking in the light of God. This is the 
condition of faith for this purity, and this purity is 
the condition of oneness with the Father and his 
Son Jesus Christ, and with the whole body of be- 
lievers in Christ. The rule in the Church of God 
is, and will be, the more heart-cleansing, the more 
unity. Further, while the word "cleanseth" may, 
and evidently does, mean an on-going process, it 
also clearly means a present process. It cleanseth 
now. This is the great fact which faith is to grasp. 
If the soul is now walking in the light and longing 
to be cleansed from all sin it may now believe this 
fact and realize it in the depths of its consciousness 
just as clearly, aye, and even more so, as it realized 
forgiveness of sins when it first believed in Christ 
for pardon. There is no room for ambiguity or 
equivocalness here. It is just as true as that God 
lives and that Christ has died. And when once this 
fact is grasped it is so easy afterwards to believe 
and realize it. It also brings great relief to the 
mind to know that the same blood which cleanseth 
when we believe, keeps us clean by continuance in 
believing. As long as we breathe we live; as long 
as we believe we are cleansed. 



CLEANSED BY THE BLOOD. 



85 



We shall never see the period when we shall not 
need the blood. We need it every day, hour, and 
moment of our earthly history. When we are dying, 
and through all eternity, our purity, our blessedness, 
will be connected with the blood of Christ. Saints, 
blood-washed and glorified before the throne, amid 
the effulgent glories of the heavenly world, never 
forget two great facts: first, that they have sinned; 
and, secondly, that the blood of Christ has cleansed 
them from all their sins. This is the burden of the 
song which they sing forever before the throne. 

This is the song of the ages, and will be the 
song of eternity. Christ, " the lamb slain," shedding 
his blood " from the foundation of the world." This 
is " salvation's source " always. Patriarchs, prophets, 
priests, and kings, apostles and martyrs, saints of all 
ages, are saved through the blood. Not saved 
because they had not sinned, because they were not 
depraved, weak, sinful men, but saved from their 
sins through the blood of the Lamb. And so they 
all join in this universal song. This chord may be 
" struck by the plectrum year after year, century 
after century, from eternity to eternity, and its 
vibrations will ever be resonant and thrilling, yet 
sweet and iEolian." No age bounds this provision. 
No condition of color, clime, language, or national- 
ity is a barrier to its realization. Everywhere, at 
all periods, among all classes, immortal beings may 
be cleansed by this blood and become witnesses of 
its cleansing power. The witnesses of this fact are, 
indeed, multiplying. The song is even now arising 



86 



SERMONS. 



from all parts of the earth. The heaven of heavens 
is ringing with the shout. Thus the universe is 
vocal with it. So John in vision heard it. "I 
beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round 
about the throne and the living ones and the elders, 
and the number of them was ten thousand times 
ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying, 
with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was 
slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and 
strength and honor and glory and blessing. And 
every creature which is in heaven and on the earth 
and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and 
all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing and 
honor and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth 
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and 
ever" 

"O may we bear some humble part 
In that immortal song; 
Wonder and joy shall tune our heart, 
And love command our tongue. " 

But if we would join that song we must experi- 
mentally know the fact which it celebrates. We 
read of the cleansing power of this blood, our songs 
of praise are burdened with it, we pray that we 
may enjoy it, but Ave fail to believe, with an appro- 
priating faith, in its cleansing power. Many think 
the disease of their heart is so obstinate, their con- 
dition so peculiar, their surroundings so adverse, 
that they can not enjoy continuously this cleansing 
of the blood. But it is idle and vain to laud the 
efficacy and power of a medicine which is always 



CLEANSED BY THE BLOOD. 87 



baffled by the power or obstinacy of the disease. 
No assertion in song or sermon or prayer will be 
credited which acknowledges that on account of our 
weaknesses, frailties, or sins, the cleansing blood 
must fail to make us holy. Put that blood to the 
test to-day. Now, while you read, and you will 
feel, you will know how powerful it is to cleanse. 
Then you will join the song of the Church on earth. 
"Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our 
sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and 
priests unto his God and Father; to him be the 
glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen." 



88 



SERMONS. 



V. 

THE POWER OE THE HOLY GHOST. 

Text: " But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost 
is come upon you ; and ye shall be ivitnesses unto me, both in Je- 
rusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and, unto the utter- 
most part of the earth" — Acts i, 8. 

These were the last words uttered by our risen 
Lord before he " ascended up far above all heavens, 
that he might fill all things." " The chariots of 
God, which are twenty thousand, even thousands 
of angels," were awaiting to escort him, and they 
filled all the air around him, as he gave to his 
Church his last promise and his last command. His 
disciples were standing around him, wondering what 
next would occur, if he " would at this time restore 
again the kingdom to Israel." But their attention 
was called to better and nobler things. His king- 
dom was not to be confined to the narrow limits of 
Judea ; but it was to extend to Samaria, and " even to 
the uttermost part of the earth." They were given 
also to understand that it was not for them "to 
know the times and the seasons, which the Father 
has put in his own power." There were other, 
vaster interests, which concerned them and the 
world. It was no mere temporal kingdom in which 
they were to reign and conquer, with its insignia 



POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 



89 



of power and glory: but a spiritual and everlasting 
kingdom, whose thrones never crumble into dust, 
and whose " crowns never fade away." Their great 
mission was to witness for Christ among all the na- 
tions; and to help them in this work there was to 
come upon them a divine power, even that of the 
Holy Spirit, by which they would be qualified for 
it, and made successful in it. 

Here, then, was opened up before them a new 
vision, by which their carnal ideas were dispelled, 
their narrow, Jewish exclusiveness rent asunder; 
and they were lifted up to contemplate something 
of the grandeur, the magnificence, and the glory of 
their calling. They began to see, dimly, that their 
risen Lord was to reign over all the nations, and 
all his enemies were to be made submissive to him. 
And while they were conscious of their utter, abso- 
lute inability to do this work, they were promised 
a power which was entirely adequate for its accom- 
plishment. Let me call attention, then, to the power 
of the Church to witness for Christ, the source of this 
power, its character, and its design, 

" Ye shall receive power." Whence ? " The 
Holy Ghost coming upon you." What for? "And 
ye shall be witnesses unto me." What, then, is the 
source of this power? It is not something, evidently, 
that is natural to man, or inherent in him, for it was 
to come upon them. It was not to be found in the 
greatness of their intellectual powers, or in the vast- 
ness of their acquired abilities. It was not to be 
in their learning, wisdom, wit, or skill ; not in per- 



90 



SERMONS. 



sonal magnetism, commanding presence, or enticing 
words. Nor is it to be found in the wealth, the 
numbers, the social position, the visible agencies and 
appliances, the ritualistic splendor, or the aesthetic 
culture of the Church. There were none of these inci- 
dents in the early Church. And yet, in the absence 
of these, they were to overcome, and to subdue the 
world to Christ. If this power, then, was not in 
man, nor from men, it must come from God. It 
must be supernatural, super-human, super-angelical 
even ; in a word, it must be divine. And so, indeed, 
Christ declares it to be. It was to come from the 
Holy, the Almighty, the Eternal Spirit. It was a 
power by which they were enabled to be what oth- 
erwise they could not be, to do what otherwise they 
could not do, to speak what otherwise they could not 
say, and to endure,or suffer, what of themselves they 
never could have passed through. 

They were thus to become new men, with new 
powers, new strength, able to "do all things," tri- 
umphant in suffering, and victorious over death. 
An illustration of this is furnished in the case of 
Peter. He had trembled and quaked, faltered in 
his allegiance to his Master, and denied him under 
the scrutinizing gaze of a mere servant-maid. But 
when this power came upon him, he stood un- 
blanched before the Jewish Sanhedrim, and charged 
them with the murder of the Son of God. And 
although he, with the other disciples, had given up 
all hope in the cause of Christ, and had returned 
to their fishing-boats, yet under the pressure of this 



POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 



91 



power they ultimately shook the world, and then 
" turned it upside down." 

Here, at the very outset, we see what Christ de- 
signed should be the great power of his Church and 
kingdom in this world. It was a spiritual, divine 
power, on which only it w r as to rely. All other 
things — wealth, numbers, honors, ritualistic observ- 
ances — we re to be regarded as only the semblances 
of this power; and they might be only as roses 
upon the pale cheek of its death, decay, and cor- 
ruption. This is its life; this is its power ; and this 
is its glory. 

What then, further, is the character of this power, 
the possession of which is so vital to the Church, 
and so essential to its growth and prosperity? This 
power is spoken of as a " gift," an " enduement," a 
" baptism," an "anointing." In the early ages of 
the Church there were certain extraordinary gifts 
which the apostles and some of the members of the 
Churches enjoyed. There was the gift of faith — a 
wonder-working faith — gifts of healing, the working 
of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, speaking 
with tongues, and interpretation of tongues. These 
and other special gifts came through the Holy Spirit 
upon the Church. These things were essential in a 
rude age, and in the advent of a new dispensation, 
which rested its claims upon the authority and ap- 
proval of God. These gifts, speaking historically, 
were limited in their duration, and ultimately ceased, 
almost wholly, from the Church. Whether, how- 
ever, this power was purposely withdrawn, or was 





92 



SERMONS. 



lost because of unbelief, we may not be able fully 
to say. Mr. Wesley was convinced that " the grand 
reason why miraculous gifts were so soon withdrawn 
was not only that faith and holiness were well-nigh 
lost, but that dry, formal, orthodox men began to 
. ridicule whatever gifts they had not themselves, and 
to deny them all as either madness or imposture."* 
It has been well said, by a certain writer, " that 
miracles are the tolling of the great bell of the 
universe to call the attention of mankind to the 
service. When the service has commenced the bell 
stops; but it may ring out again when the service 
is over and the congregation is going home." In 
other words, there may possibly be a return of these 
gifts to the Church before, or during, its millennial 
history. 

But leaving this train of thought, there were 
evidently promised gifts of the Holy Spirit which 
were not to be for a limited period, or for a selected 
few ; but which were to abide forever, and to be the 
common heritage of all God's people. The Savior 
promised that the " Comforter should abide with his 
disciples forever" So the Apostle Peter, at Pente- 
cost, said : " The promise [of the Spirit] is to you 
here present, and to your children, and to all that 
are afar oif [among the Gentiles], even to as many 
as the Lord our God shall call." Hence we see that 
this was to be a resident, an abiding power, in " as 
many as the Lord our God shall call." What, then, 
is it ? We can only know it by its effects. 

*Tyerman's "Life of Wesley," Vol. II, p. 87. 



POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 



93 



1. It was a power producing an experience in con- 
sciousness of the salvation which Christ had pur- 
chased with his blood. This salvation had been 
purchased in all its freeness and fullness by the 
death of Christ; but to be enjoyed, it must be ap- 
plied — it must be made effective. Now, the Holy 
Spirit is "the executive of the Godhead/ 5 and he 
has come forth to do this work for man. All that 
that salvation embraces — pardon, renewal, sanctifi- 
cation, heaven — for time and for eternity, this divine, 
eternal Spirit was to effect in redeemed men. Now, 
this salvation, thus brought to an immortal being, 
makes him a new man, enables him to live a new 
life, and not only gives to him supernatural peace 
and joy, but also supernatural power. As a saved 
man, into whose spirit has come the Holy Ghost, he 
has power with God as a prince, and prevails with 
him. He also has power with man to lift him up, and, 
instrumentally, to save him. It is in this way that the 
truly Christian man becomes a power in the commu- 
nity, in the Church, in the family, and in the world. 
He now becomes a temple of the Holy Ghost, who 
dwells in him. Hence there is a power resident in 
him that is greater than the world, greater than 
hell. " For greater is he that is in you, than he 
that is in the world. " Christ said, " Behold I give 
unto you power over all the power of the enemy." 
On this, Frances Ridley Havergal says : " Why, it 
is grand ! power over all the power of the enemy. 
Just where he is strongest, there they shall prevail; 
not over his weak points and places, but over the 



94 



SERMONS. 



very force of his power ; not over his power here and 
there and now and then, but over all his power. And 
Jesus said it ! Is n't it enough to go into battle with ? 
And it is not future ; not I will give, but present, now ; 
I give unto you, unto every one whom he sends." 

Thus the Christian becomes like an electrical 
battery which is charged with the subtle and pow- 
erful current. He is charged with the Holy Spirit. 
And as that electrical current is invisible, yet felt 
by all who are brought in contact with it; so this 
power in him will be felt by all with whom he is 
surrounded. So Cowper sings : 

" When such, a man, familiar with the skies, 
Has filled his urn where those pure waters rise, 
And once more mingles with us — meaner things — 
'Tis e'en as if an angel shook his wings. 
Immortal fragrance fills the circuit wide; 
Which tells us where his treasures are supplied. " 

2. This is the power to live a holy life. This is 
the outward and visible manifestation of the inward 
and conscious experience. This is a power which 
the world has never been able successfully to assail. 
Neither its wisdom nor its wit, its scorns or sneers, 
or the shafts of ridicule and sarcasm, can ever harm 
or destroy. This is a power which will always 
make itself felt. It is the grand, living demonstra- 
tion of the truth of Christianity. It is of more 
value to the Church than mountains of gold and 
silver, than exhaustless treasures of diamonds and 
pearls. Infidelity writhes under it, ungodliness and 
impurity shrink from its presence, and legions of 
devils turn pale and gnash their teeth in impotent 



POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 



95 



rage. O for this power in the life of every pro- 
fessed Christian ! This can not be successfully im- 
itated. You may paint the flame, but you can not 
give it heat. You may paint the flower, but you 
can not give it fragrance. It must be the natural 
and legitimate effect of the indwelling of the Holy 
Spirit if we possess this power. 

3. But all this is preparatory to, and essential 
for, that witness for Christ, which is the ultimate 
design of this gift of power — 66 Ye shall be witnesses 
unto me." No man can or will stand up for any 
length of time in this world and attempt to witness 
for Christ, unless he has experienced the grace and 
power of the Holy Spirit. This fact was especially 
true in the early history of the Church, when to 
stand up as a witness for Jesus was the sure road to 
the dungeon, the stake, the amphitheater, to exile, 
or death. And it is essentially true now. The 
power to witness for Christ consistently and effect- 
ively is from above. This was clearly expressed by 
the Savior when he said : "AH power is given unto 
me in earth and in heaven; go ye therefore and 
teach all nations." And the text teaches the same 
truth. "Ye shall receive power, and ye shall be 
witnesses unto me." Without that power they could 
not teach, without it they could not bear witness of 
Christ. Indeed, what could they be witnesses of? 
A witness is one who knows the fact, or thing, of 
which he speaks. And a man must know Christ, 
not historically, but experimentally, or he can not 
bear witness of him. Hence the beloved John 



96 



SERMONS. 



says : " That which we have seen and heard de- 
clare we unto you." A living experience then is 
essential to a witness-bearer; and a living experi- 
ence is only to be had by the Holy Ghost coming 
upon us. For instance, a man may profess to be a 
minister of Christ ; but without this experimental 
knowledge of his grace and salvation will he preach 
Christ? No. He may read beautiful essays about 
Christ or upon morality or other themes, but he 
can not witness for Christ, because he does not know 
Christ. So one may be a private member of a 
Church and may subscribe to its formulas of doc- 
trine and go through, even punctiliously, with its 
forms of worship, but, at the same time, he will 
have nothing to testify of Christ. On the other 
hand, he who has experienced his grace and power, 
be he minister or Church member, old or young, 
rich or poor, learned or ignorant, must speak for 
Christ ; he must speak, or grieve the Holy Spirit and 
quench the divine light which has shone in upon 
him. Hence the apostles said: "We can not but 
speak the things which we have seen and heard." 
And this, too, was only a few days after this endue- 
ment of power had come upon them, and when 
the Sanhedrin had charged them not to speak any 
more in- the name of Jesus. What were martyrs 
but dying witnesses for Christ? Had they kept 
silent the world would have had no martyrs. This 
was not confined to the apostles nor to the ministry ; 
it is both the duty and the privilege of every Chris- 
tian. The whole Church of Christ is designed to 



POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 



97 



be a witnessing Church. So says the prophecy of 
Joel, "On my servants and on my handmaidens 
will I pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy J* 
And bearing witness for Christ is prophesying in 
the New Testament sense of the word. 

The early Church were fully alive to this duty 
and responsibility. And wherever they went, in 
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, or any of the cities or 
provinces of the Roman Empire, they spoke of Jesus 
and him crucified, risen, and exalted. And the effects 
of this were everywhere seen and known. In less 
than a single century they had borne the banner of 
the cross and testified for Christ in every part of 
the Roman Empire. O, it is the men and women 
who know Christ, who have tasted of his grace and 
power, and are conscious of the indwelling of the 
Spirit in their hearts, who stand up for Jesus, who 
stand up and confess him, and witness for him and 
defend his cause, who stand up before this sin- 
smitten world, not only monuments of his grace, but 
witnesses of his love. 

And these testimonies for Christ, inspired by the 
power of the Holy Spirit, are the most efficient 
means for the salvation of this world, the conversion 
of the ungodly, the confounding of errorists, the 
overthrow of infidelity, and the extension of the 
kingdom of Christ. They constitute the true Chris- 
tian a "living epistle, read and known of all men," 
a practical exemplification of the power and glory 
of the religion which he professes. 

4. This power enabled the disciples to triumph 



98 



SERMONS. 



over the oppositions and persecutions to which they 
were exposed while witnessing for Christ. The 
early Church met with a storm of persecution, both 
from the Jewish hierarchy and the Roman Empire. 
Thousands were called upon to seal their testimony 
with their blood. But so sustained were they by 
this power that they "took joyfully the spoiling of 
their goods." They "counted it all joy that they 
were worthy to suffer shame for his name." They 
did not even "count their lives dear unto them- 
selves." Prisons became palaces to them, along 
whose corridors and through whose dungeons rang 
out clear and full their triumphant songs. The 
flaming staT^e was to them like a gilded chariot, and 
the flames their victory robes, in which their happy 
spirits ascended to God. The heavens opened before 
their raptured eyes, and they saw "Jesus standing 
at the right hand of God to receive and welcome 
them, while an innumerable company of angels were 
shouting their welcome to the skies. What was 
opposition or persecution to them? Thus has it 
been in all the ages of the Church. The true Chris- 
tian, endowed with this power, has bidden defiance 
to earth and hell, and urged on his triumphant 
career amid the scoffs and jeers, the perils and per- 
secutions which the world and the powers of dark- 
ness have thrown round his way. There is, there 
must be, an eternal antagonism between a living 
Christian, a living Church, and a Godless, Christless 
world. "They who will live godly in Christ Jesus 
will suffer persecution." Nothing but the power of 



POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 



99 



the Holy Spirit can enable the Christian to over- 
come these things; but this is all-conquering and 
all-sufficient. 

What, then, is the great design of the bestowment 
of this gift of power f One thing is clearly evident, 
that it is not bestowed merely for the satisfaction, 
or even the salvation, of those who receive it. It 
is imparted to be used. " Ye shall receive power, 
and ye shall be witnesses." 

1. It is the purpose of God that every creature 
shall hear of Christ This is the great commission 
given to the Church, to " preach the Gospel to every 
creature." The early Church, as we have seen, un- 
derstood this and carried out this great design wher- 
ever its members went. Thus they u made known 
the savor of his knowledge in every place." Their 
hearts being all aflame with his love, they resolved 
" to know nothing among men but J esus Christ and 
him crucified;" to glory in nothing save in his 
cross. The bestowment of the symbolical tongues 
on the day of Pentecost indicated the use which was 
to be made of the tongue in witnessing for Christ. 
Gregory the great beautifully remarks on this: 
"The Holy Spirit sat upon the first pastors in the 
form of tongues, because, doubtless, he moves those 
whom he has filled with his power immediately to 
speak of himself." 

This is the great design of Christ, that his apos- 
tles and all his people in all the ages, receiving this 
gift, should testify of him. This, indeed, is the 
very first impulse of the soul when it has received 



100 



SERMONS. 



the baptism of the Spirit. And this impulse it will 
ever retain as long as the Spirit dwells within and 
" works in it mightily." But how and where shall 
we testify? Not always in the pulpit or in public 
places. Comparatively few are called upon to do 
this. But, personally, face to face with immortal 
beings, in the family, in the workshop, the count- 
ing-room, on the wayside, everywhere. Sometimes 
by letter to absent and distant * ones. Sometimes 
through the religious tract, where opportunity for 
conversation can not be had. 

But what shall we witness of him ? The histor- 
ical facts that he died upon the cross and rose again 
from the dead ? Shall we merely tell of his mirac- 
ulous works and his wondrous teachings ? No. 
Blessed as this evangel is, it is not sufficient. But 
we want to witness what Christ is to us, and what 
he has done for us ; what we know of him, of his 
power to forgive sins, of the power of his blood to 
cleanse and save from all sin, of the power of his 
Holy Spirit to sanctify the soul and fill it with un- 
utterable peace and joy. Now, if a man receive 
this gift, and does not use it according to this de- 
sign, he will be shorn of his strength, and will 
become a mere driveling, a mere cipher, in the 
Church of God and in the community, and will be 
in danger of apostasy. Many such there are, alas! 
both in the ministry and in the membership of our 
Churches. They once had the light, but it has 
become darkness, and we now see only the ashes 
of a fire which once burned brightly upon their 



POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 101 



hearts. O, if the light of heaven is kindled in our 
hearts it is that it may " shine before men, that 
they may see it in our good words and works, and 
glorify our Father who is in heaven." And if the 
power of the Spirit is bestowed upon us, it is that 
we may be witnesses wherever we go. But how 
many there are in our pulpits and in our pews who 
never have experienced this gift. The light has 
never shined in their hearts, the fire has never been 
kindled on the altar of their spirits. Many minis- 
ters are trusting too much in culture, in education; 
and our Churches, in too many instances, are rely- 
ing upon appeals to the aesthetic tastes of the peo- 
ple and to social position ; and so the light of heaven 
does not shine in them, and the divine fire is never 
experienced. Phillips Brooks, in one of his sermons, 
thus represents this class : " These men are un lighted 
candles; they are the spirit of man elaborated, cul- 
tivated, finished to its very finest, but lacking the 
last touch of God. As dark as a row of silver 
lamps, all chased and wrought with wondrous skill, 
all filled with rarest oil, but all untouched with 
fire, so dark in this world is a long row of cultivated 
men set up along the corridors of some page of his- 
tory around the halls of some wise university, or in 
the pulpit of some stately church, to whom there 
has come no fire of devotion, who stand in awe and 
reverence before no wisdom greater than their own, 
who are proud and selfish, who do not know what 
it is to obey. The poor blind world can not tell 
its need, nor analyze its instinct, nor say why it 



102 



SERMONS. 



leaves one man and seeks another; but through its 
blind eyes it knows when the fire of God has fallen 
on a human life. This is the meaning of the strange 
helpfulness which comes upon a man when he is 
truly converted. It is not new truth that he knows, 
or new wonders he can do, but his unlighted nature 
has been lifted up and lighted at the life of God, 
and now burns with him."* 

2. This witness is designed, instrument-ally, to 
save them that believe. It is the part of the ministry 
and the Church to bear this witness to every crea- 
ture; it is the part of every creature to accept and 
believe this testimony. And while there is very 
much in the manner of delivering the testimony, 
there is also that men may be saved very much in 
the manner of receiving it. Hence it is said, " With 
great power the apostles witnessed to the resurrec- 
tion." Again, That "they so spake that many be- 
lieved." Peter speaks of "preaching the Gospel 
with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." Now 
one may witness of the resurrection of Christ as a 
great fact, and many might listen to it with interest 
and yet be unimpressed and unsaved. But it is 
very different when one witnesses to that resurrec- 
tion with great power. So the Gospel may be 
preached correctly as to its doctrines, its miracles, 
its ethical system, and men might or might not 
listen to it. But when it is preached with the Holy 
Ghost accompanying and sealing the truth, great 

* Sermons by Phillips Brooks. The Candle of the Lord, 
etc. Psalm 10-11. 



POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 



103 



and glorious are the results. And no matter who 
it is that thus, under the pressure of this power, 
witnesses ; whether a great orator like Whitefield, a 
black laborer, or an obscure woman; whether they 
are ordained or unordained men, — we know, we 
feel in our hearts, that it is the immortal fire, that 
God is with them of a truth, and that what they 
say is more important than. all things else. Christ- 
lieb says : " The strongest argument for the truth 
of Christianity is the true Christian, the man filled 
with the Spirit of Christ. The best proof of Christ's 
resurrection is a living Church, which itself is walk- 
ing in a new life, and drawing life from him who 
has overcome death. Before such arguments ancient 
Rome herself, the mightiest empire in the world, 
and the most hostile to Christianity, could not stand. 
Let us live in like manner, and then, though hell 
should have a short-lived triumph, eventually must 
be fulfilled what St. Augustine says, 6 Love is the 
fulfilling of the truth/ " 

And when this power of the Spirit comes upon 
a minister or upon a Church, they often do more 
for God in one day than they have done before in 
years. O, we have all the ecclesiastical machinery 
needed for the conversion of this world to Christ, 
we have the men and women, we have the money, 
we have the Word of God in all the leading lan- 
guages and dialects of the world ! what we want, 
all we w^ant, is the fire to go through this machinery, 
to light these unlighted lamps, to touch these dumb 
lips, to open these vast resources, and to send abroad 



104 



SERMONS. 



the Word of the Lord among the nations. We speak 
of the wondrous effects of the Word of God in the 
days of the Wesleys, Whitefield, and our fathers, and 
wonder why we do not have them now. We need 
not wonder. Men and women have not changed; 
the Word of God is not bound ; the Holy Spirit is 
as almighty as ever. What, then, do we need? 
Simply that the barriers be so removed out of the 
way that God's Spirit can come upon us, and that 
our faith can grasp the fulfillment of the promise. 
The world is wearily waiting for this. When shall 
we hail and herald his coming and working mightily 
among us? 

How is this power to be obtained f Not by money, 
or by fine churches, or numbers, or high social po- 
sition. With all these accidents the Church may 
crumble with dry-rot into dust. We have relied 
too much upon these things, and we are experi- 
encing the sad results. The masses are turning 
away from many of our churches, or only go to 
them to witness some pyrotechnic display or some 
mountebank performance, as they would go to the 
theater to see them. But the masses will turn away 
from dead Churches. And when these Churches 
become conscious that something is wanting they 
will endeavor to add a new organ, or choir, or 
fresco, or reflector, or something visible to the eye, 
or that will attract and affect the senses. Some- 
times they will change the minister. " They want," 
they say, "a minister who will draw." Alas for 
the man who has to draw a dead Church! But 



POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 



105 



how seldom the people think that a Church should 
draw, and that a living Church will draw! 

How, then, are we to have this power? I an- 
swer, by prayer. So the apostles and brethren, 
with the women, obtained it at Pentecost. So the 
patriarch Jacob, and the prophets of the Lord, 
obtained it of old. So the reformers and revivalists 
of the Church have obtained it ; and so only can 
we. It was prayer, persevering, believing, united, 
that brought down this ascension gift upon the 
early Church; and such prayer will bring this 
power down now. If ministers prayed more they 
would have more power. If the Churches were 
more united and earnest in prayer we should oftener 
feel this power coming down upon us. Mr. Griffith, 
of Caernarvon, in Wales, was to preach one night at 
a farm-house. He retired to a private room some 
time before the service began. "When the congre- 
gation had assembled the preacher was not there, 
and a servant was sent to his room to ask him to 
come down. She approached the door, and thought 
she heard him conversing with some one. She 
heard him say, " I will not go unless Thou come 
with me." She returned to her master, and told 
him that some one was talking with Mr. Griffith, 
and " he tells him he will not come unless he accom- 
pany him. I did not hear the other make a reply," 
said she, " and so I think he will not come to-night." 
u Yes, yes, he will," said the goodman of the house, 
"and the other will come with him." So he com- 
menced the service, and soon Mr. Griffith appeared. 



106 



SERMONS. 



That night a powerful revival of religion began in 
the neighborhood, and many were converted to 
God. This is the great condition of his coming — 
prayer, more prayer. 

But if God 7 in answer to prayer, send this power 
of the Holy Spirit, we are to use it, to accept the 
responsibility of possessing it. We are to witness, 
to prophesy, in the name of the Lord. The battery 
may be fully charged with electricity; but it is of no 
practical value unless it is applied, or appropriated. 
So, if we are filled with the Spirit, we must use the 
power he gives. The vast preparations for the de- 
struction of the dangerous rocks at Hellgate, New 
York, would have been useless if the electric spark 
had not been applied. The dynamite, the rend -rock 
and vulcan powder, would have been no more than 
so much common dust. The tunneling, the galle- 
ries, the batteries, with a thousand cells, would all 
have been vain without the application of this power 
of fire. But when all was ready, and a closing 
circuit, at a safe distance, was arranged, then the 
tiny finger of a little child was sufficient to occasion 
the mighty explosion, which rent countless tons of 
rock from their water-covered beds. O, how, if this 
power were possessed by the Church, with all these 
preparations of six thousand years ready at hand, 
and it were applied to the hoary systems of super- 
stition and error and idolatry, to the loose scientific 
infidelity of the present, to the accursed system of 
intemperance, to the vile system of polygamy, to 
the habits of Sabbath desecration so prevalent, and 



POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. 107 

. to the blood-stained, doomed, and tottering systems 
of Romanism and Mohammedanism, how soon would 
they all crumble into dust, amid the shouts of hosan- 
nah and halleluiah in the earth and in the heavens ! 
O Great Head of the Church, send the promised 
Comforter, the promised power, upon all thy min- 
isters and upon all thy Churches! Amen, and 
Amen. 

10 



108 



SERMONS. 



PERFECT LOYE. 

Text: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. — Matthew 
xxii, 37. 

The first and greatest command of the law is 
love. The first and greatest command of the Gospel 
is believe. These commands are the first and greatest 
in the two dispensations, because they comprehend 
and embrace all others. This is so true that the 
Apostle Paul says: "Love is the fulfilling of the 
law." For if a man love God with all his heart 
he will hallow his name, he will reverence his 
authority, he will endeavor to obey all his com- 
mands and to do his will. And so, if a man " love 
his neighbor as himself," he will do nothing that 
will injure him; "for love worketh no ill to his 
neighbor." In like manner, if a man truly believe 
the Gospel, he will act in accordance with his 
belief; his whole life, as well as his whole charac- 
ter, will be molded and controlled by his faith. 
Here, then, is summed up in two little, simple 
words, love and faith, the whole of our obligations 
to God and Christ and our neighbor. 

It is further a matter of deepest interest for us 



PERFECT LOVE. 



109 



to consider that these two requirements are based 
upon two existing elements in our nature which, 
indeed, are the most natural things for us to do, 
which are the most frequently in exercise, and 
which are the most easily exercised of any of our 
powers. We begin to love and believe with the 
very dawn of our being; and we continue the exer- 
cise of these faculties, more or less, unto the end of 
our lives. The most wretched and abandoned of 
earth have some one or some thing which they love, 
and some one in whom they have confidence. And 
if sin had not perverted and depraved us it would 
be just as natural for us to love and trust God as it 
is for us to love our mother or our child, and to 
have confidence in the truthful and loving words of 
our father. God has based his great commands on 
these inherent, but often perverted powers of our 
nature. But when these elements are regenerated, 
purified, and sanctified, these requirements are 
obeyed with the greatest ease and the highest de- 
light. May the Holy Spirit aid us in considering 
this command! 

1. In its universality. We must regard it as 
extending to every intelligent being in the universe, 
in heaven, earth, and hell. It says to every one in 
the vast realms of the uncreated: "Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God." No one is,or can be,excepted. 
It is God's will, and therefore God's law for the 
universe. It is also unchangeable and eternal. As 
long as God is God, and man, angel, and devil are 
under his authority, so long is this law obligatory 



110 



SERMONS. 



upon them. If the law is violated, they are respons- 
ible for it, and must suffer the endless consequences 
of their sin. And whenever it is obeyed God is 
well pleased, and all the power of his almightiness 
will be employed for the protection, the salvation, 
and happiness of the obedient one. In a word, to 
obey this command is heaven; to disobey it is hell. 

2. "What is the import of this command f It is 
not to do this or that primarily, but simply to love, 
which is the source of all willing and acceptable 
obedience. He does not require us to do what we 
can not do, aided by his Holy Spirit. He himself 
has endowed us with the capacity to love, just as 
much as to breathe, to see, and to hear. We may 
not all be great in a worldly sense, or rich or hon- 
ored or comely or wise, but we can all love God. 
If sin had not perverted us, blinded and distorted 
our mental vision, weakened our will and hardened 
our hearts, this claim of God to our supreme love 
would be readily recognized and cheerfully met. 
But sin has caused the magnet of the soul to deviate 
widely from the pole of its attraction, and unrest, 
disquiet, trouble, sorrow, and death follow. This 
will be seen more clearly if we consider 

3. The object whom we are required to love. u The 
Lord thy God" — the infinitely holy, just, wise, and 
good; the omnipotent, ubiquitous, omniscient one. 
Every attribute, or perfection, of his character is so 
grand and so glorious as to be eminently fitted to 
call forth our admiration, our esteem, our vener- 
ation, our love. But the language in which the 



PERFECT LOVE. 



Ill 



command is couched does not merely present him 
before us possessed of these perfections. It also, 
and particularly, tells us of his relation to us. He 
is the Lord, truly, Jehovah, self-existent, eternal; 
but he is, also, the Lord thy God. In other words, 
he sustains the closest, tenderest, and highest rela- 
tions to us. He is our Creator, and so we are his 
creatures, his children, originally bearing his image. 
Not only so, we are made for him as well as made 
by him. How often he speaks in his Word of this 
endearing relation. " I am the Lord thy maker" He 
has made us capable of knowing him, worshiping 
him, communing with him, and enjoying him, as 
well as of loving and trusting him. Then, too, he 
is our preserver and benefactor. In his hand is our 
breath and all our ways. " In him we live, and 
move, and have our being." He keeps our pulses 
beating and our hearts throbbing. He feeds, clothes, 
and shelters us; by a daily miracle supplies our 
wants and gives us richly all things to enjoy. " He 
openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire of every 
living thing." He is "our Father who is in 
heaven," loving, tender, and kind. But, above all, 
he is our Redeemer. When we had rebelled against 
him, violated his law, incurred his displeasure, " He 
loved us so much that he gave his only-begotten 
Son to die for us, that we might not perish, but 
that we might have everlasting life." No words 
could more fully express our obligations to love 
him, " because he first loved us." Thus, from what 
he is in himself, from what he is to us, and from 



112 



SERMONS. 



what he has done for us, we are commanded to 
love him. 

4. We now come to consider the comprehensive- 
ness of this command. "With all thy heart, all thy 
soul, and all thy mind." To this Luke adds, "And 
all thy strength." It is the heart of man, the center 
of his being, the seat and source of his affections, 
the all-controlling power of his nature, that God 
first lays claim to. " My son, give me thy heart." 
Wherever the heart, the will or the affection goes, 
there goes man's whole being, whether it be God- 
ward, worldward, sinward, or hellward. This com- 
mand implies that the will is to be surrendered to 
God, to be in harmony with his will, and always 
subordinate thereto. There can be no true love to 
God where there is rebellion, opposition, antago- 
nism against him. Not on]y so. It implies that our 
supreme affections are to be centered in him. He 
is to occupy the throne of the heart. He is to reign 
there unrivaled, supreme, adored, obeyed. Any 
thing short of this is idolatry. Some one, some 
thing, will occupy that throne. If it is any one, or 
any thing but God, it is an idol. God will not 
occupy a divided throne. He will not dwell in a 
divided heart. He will not have another share in 
his honor, his worship, the love which is due to him 
alone. But this by no means implies that all crea- 
ture-love is forbidden, or excluded. No. Parents 
are required to love their children, children their 
parents, and wives and husbands to love each other. 
We may love all God's creatures and all God's 



PERFECT LOVE. 



113 



works. And it is an ascertained fact, in the expe- 
rience of our consciousness, that the more fully, 
completely, supremely, and perfectly we love God, 
the more pure, ardent, and intense will be the love 
of our neighbor, our friends, our kindred, our world. 
This command will not make man a misanthrope 
or a pessimist. If God is loved with all our hearts 
we shall love God's creatures, God's world, as others 
can not do. This has had ten thousand thousand 
illustrations and confirmations in the history of 
God's people. When a martyr was asked if he 
"did not love his wife and children/' who stood 
w T eeping in his dungeon, he answered, "If the whole 
world were gold and silver, and I had it all in my 
possession, I would give it all to live with them, 
even in a dungeon; but in comparison with Christ 
I love them not." A dear boy, who was dying with 
consumption in one of my charges, as his mother 
came to his bedside, threw his withered, attenuated 
arms around her neck, exclaiming: "Mother! dear 
mother! how much I love you; but I love Jesus 
better still." 

"With all thy soul" The soul, as distinguished 
from the heart and mind, signifies our animal life, 
the life which we live in the body and on the earth. 
Every thing in this life should be under the control 
of this divine love — all our relationships, friend- 
ships, business, pleasures, time, wealth, honors, and 
social positions. These should be swayed, governed, 
actuated by this principle. And Dr. Clarke well 
says, " We should be willing to endure all sorts of 



114 



SERMONS. 



torments, and to be deprived of all kinds of com- 
forts, rather than dishonor God; and that life and 
death should be nothing but as they come from 
God and lead to him." From pure love to their 
children parents have given up their lives for them ; 
and from the same principle children have given 
up their lives for their parents. Patriots have 
cheerfully given up their lives for their country; 
and multitudes have given up their lives for the 
glory of God, and from pure love for him. Paul 
says of himself, " Neither count I my life dear to 
myself;" and, "I am ready not to be bound only, 
but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the 
Lord Jesus." So John says, of the victors who 
wear their crowns and wave their palms in the 
eternal city of God, "They overcame him [Satan] 
by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their 
testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the 
death." Only this supreme love to God can make 
martyrs, who would rather give up their lives than 
dishonor or disobey their God. Thus God requires 
not only the heart, but also the life, in this command. 

" With all thy mind." This embraces our intel- 
lectual powers — memory, reason, understanding, im- 
agination, judgment, consciousness. All these are 
to be employed in loving the Lord our God. These 
vast and wondrous powers which God has given to 
us, with all their accumulated stores of learning and 
knowledge, are all to acknowledge and adore him. 
In all its contemplations of his Word and works, it 
is to see his hand, to recognize his presence and 



PERFECT LOVE. 



115 



power. All its plans and purposes and pursuits are 
to acknowledge his sovereign right to us, and to 
seek only his honor and glory. The intellect, also, 
is to recognize the reasonableness of this command. 
This certainly accords with the highest reason. If 
there is a personal God, if he is all his Word and 
works declare, if he is so nearly related to us, and 
has done so much for us, then surely it is the most 
reasonable thing in the universe that I should love 
him with all my powers. My intellect can roam 
through all the earth and through all the heavens, 
and then, returning, can say, " Whom have I in the 
heavens but thee? and there is nothing upon earth 
that I desire besides thee." Thus the mind loves 
every thing that God is, and every thing that he 
does. His works, his Word, his plan of redemption 
and salvation, his providences, prosperous or ad- 
verse, his people of every name, his creatures — all, 
all are loved, because they were made by him, 
given by him, and directed by his unerring wisdom 
and skill. 

"With all thy strength" Not only are all our 

powers to be thus employed, but also with all their 

strength, vigor,, maturity, and durability — for time 

and for eternity. This is fully seen in the use of 

the word all in connection with these powers; but 

it intensifies the command when the word strength is 

used. 66 The exalted idea, however, of loving God 

with all our powers, and loving him also wholly 

with them all, embraces at once the whole, both of 

religion and morals." We are not only to love him 

11 



116 



SERMONS. 



with the feeble powers of our early years and early 
life, but also with the full, rich, ripe, matured powers 
of our manhood; not only with those powers bur- 
dened and shackled in time, but with them disbur- 
dened, unfettered, amid the glories and blessedness 
of the heavenly world. 

5. This love, then, must be entire. " With all 
thy heart." This would, in its fullness, exclude 
every thing contrary thereto. Every idol must be 
dethroned. Self must be excluded, humbled, cast 
out. We can only love God with all our heart 
when every thing which antagonizes that love is 
taken away. This is perfect love, which casteth out 
fear — all debasing, tormenting fear. This love knows 
no measure. Indeed, it has been well said that "the 
only measure of our love to God is to love him 
without measure." "Love lives, and asks not when, 
how, where; it is the primordial, innermost life, 
which ignores the whole world of reflections and 
prudential rules, and blesses even its enemy." This 
is the grand ideal of the Christian character and 
life. This is religion. With almost infinite degrees 
of experience in consciousness, this is co be the con- 
stant aim of every child of God, from the weakest 
babe in Christ to the maturest saint. Man thus 
partakes of the divine nature. "God is love; and 
he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God 
dwelleth in him.'' Dr. South says: "Love is the 
great instrument of nature, the bond and cement of 
society, the spirit and spring of the universe. It is 
such an affection as can not so properly be said to 



PERFECT LOVE. 



117 



be in the soul as the soul to be in that ; it is the 
whole man wrapped up in one desire" 

6. But some one will ask: "How can I do this? 
My heart is hard, its affections low, groveling, idol- 
atrous; my will is perverse, my understanding 
darkened, and I am ' earthly, sensual, devilish/ 
How, then, can I obey this great command? I 
know it is right and reasonable that I should do 
so ; I have felt, occasionally, some emotions of this 
love ; but how to love God with all my heart, all 
the time, I know not." Many make a great mis- 
take by trying to do this in their own strength; 
and the most they can realize in so doing is a sort 
of sentimental feeling, as evanescent as the morning 
dew. This can not be done. We must first be 
made like God, before we can thus love him. A 
divine regeneration and transformation must pass 
upon our moral and spiritual being; and a divine 
agency must not only come upon the soul, but also 
come into it, shedding abroad there the love of God. 
And so we are to receive the Spirit of God into our 
hearts, by whom only we can be enabled to obey 
this command. He renews the heart, subdues the 
stubborn will, lifts up the groveling affections and 
centers them in God, and, dwelling in us, makes us 
to dwell in God. So, while God makes this com- 
mand, he has also provided the way by which it 
can be obeyed. 

7. We ought, also, to look very carefully at the 
personality of this command, " With all thy heart." 
There are those who would say : " O, if I could 



118 



SERMONS. 



only love God with an angel's or a seraph's powers, 
or as some eminent saints whom I know, or of whom 
I have read, I should be so glad and so satisfied. 
But I am so frail, so weak, so ignorant, and my 
powers are so feeble and so limited, I certainly can 
not obey this command acceptably." But read the 
command again. Does it say, Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with an angel's or a seraph's powers, 
or as fully and perfectly as the eminent saint? No; 
nothing of this kind, but simply, " With all thy 
heart." True, your heart and mine may be little 
and narrow and weak, and our mental powers limited 
and uncultured, and our life obscure, little known, 
and comparatively little worth ; but all our heavenly 
Father asks us is to love him with the powers we 
have, and if we do this we shall be as accepted with 
him as the most eminent saint, the brightest arch- 
angel, or the burning seraph. Even the little child 
may have such love for God as will draw his great 
heart towards him. O, I am so glad that the Lord 
does not require angelic or Adamic perfection of me ! 
If he did, I should never realize it in this world. 
All he asks is that I love him with all my heart, 
my soul, my mind, and my strength. This he has a 
right to ask. This I may be able to do, under the 
saving, regenerating, sanctifying power of the Holy 
Spirit. It will be readily seen, then, thatlhis com- 
mand is not arbitrary, but is founded upon the char- 
acter of God and his relations to his creatures. But 
not only so, it will be seen that, 

8. Our highest happiness is involved in obeying 



PERFECT LOVE. 



119 



this command. By so doing we are elevated in the 
scale of being ; we become like the angels ; yea, we 
become like God. All sin is humiliating, degrading. 
It sinks us not only to the level of the bestial, but 
lower still, to the level of the demoniacal. But 
love, divine love, exalts us ; and in proportion as it 
is supreme, or perfect, we rise upward and God- 
ward. We drop the earthly, the sensual, the selfish, 
the low, the mean, and the groveling, and we rise to 
sunny summits of being and of bliss. What can 
more dignify and exalt us than this divine love? 
And what is so enduring as this? It outlasts all 
time, it outlives death and decay, it overleaps the 
boundaries of this life, and" expands and fully de- 
velops upon the eternal shores. 

"Its nature and its office still the same, 
Lasting its lamp, and unconsumed its flame; 
In deathless triumph shall forever live, 
And endless good diffuse, and endless praise receive." 

" Charity [love] never faileth : but whether there 
be prophecies, they shall fail ; whether there be 
tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowl- 
edge, it shall vanish away." And there can be no 
reasonable doubt that as our powers expand in the 
eternal world, and are enabled more fully to know 
all things, so in proportion our love will grow and 
increase more and more through all the cycles of 
the eternal ages. And forever and ever, the more 
we love the more God-like we shall be. 

This will restore us upon earth, in our spiritual 
nature, to our Paradisiacal state. We lost that by sin 



120 



SERMONS. 



and rebellion ; we regain it by Christ and the mighty 
redemptive agencies of his blood and his Spirit. 
It is the new creation. It is the millennium begun 
in the soul. When one asked dear Alfred Cookman 
when he thought the millennium would come, he 
answered, putting his hand upon a heart filled with 
the love of God : " It has begun, brother ; it has 
begun here." O, it is thus that we return to the 
center of our being, from which we had broken 
loose and wandered far off into the dreary regions 
of sin and sorrow ! It is thus the image of God is 
restored to the soul, and it becomes fitted to glorify 
him and enjoy him forever. Love is the everlasting 
bond uniting us to God. 

This, too, is the source of the supremest bliss of 
which our being is capable. If we love other ob- 
jects they will fade and wither before our eyes. Our 
best loved friends die, and are buried out of our 
sight. Wealth, honor, worldly pleasure, all will fail, 
must fail when we come to die ; and so they can 
not furnish " the bliss for which we sigh." But love 
divine satisfies, fills up our most expansive desires 
and our intensest longings. This is the bliss of 
the angels. It is the bliss of God. Heaven is all 
love, at least in the sense that nothing contrary to 
love is found there. If we could see an angel, and 
ask him what makes him so happy, why sorrow 
never comes to him, why no tear-drops of grief are 
in his eyes, would he not tell us that it is because 
he loves God supremely, constantly, and joyfully? 
And, surely, if we thus love God we shall know 



PERFECT LOVE. 



121 



angelical happiness. Nor need we wait for the bliss 
of heaven until we get there. Here and now we 
may know this bliss — not, it is true, in its fullness, 
but, certainly, in its foretaste. And if we had more 
love we should have more bliss. Let us, then, 
cry out: 

" Finish, then, thy new creation ; 

Pure and spotless let us be; 
Let us see thy great salvation 

Perfectly restored in thee; 
Changed from glory into glory, 

Till in heaven we take our place, 
Till w T e cast our crowns before thee, 

Lost in wonder, love, and praise." 

The test of the existence and supremacy of this 
love is obedience. " If ye love me, keep my com- 
mandments." " If ye love me, ye will keep my 
commandments." So said the Master. So all rev- 
elation and experience say. Again, Jesus said : "He 
that hath my commandments and keepeth them, 
he it is that loveth me ; and he that loveth me 
shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, 
and will manifest myself unto him." And so the 
converse of this is true : " He that loveth me not 
keepeth not my sayings." Not only so. While the 
keeping of his commandments is the test of our love 
to God, it is also the only way by which we can 
abide in his love. So says the Master : " If ye keep 
my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even 
as I have kept my Father's commandments, and 
abide in his love." Thus, too, we become his friends : 
" Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command 



122 



SERMONS. 



you." So writes the beloved John. "For this is 
the love of God, that we keep his commandments, 
and his commandments are not grievous," (v, 3.) 
Obedience becomes easy, natural, pleasant when 
love is the inspiring, impelling cause. It is not a 
hard and heavy yoke under which the soul will 
groan and sigh for deliverance; but an easy, pleas- 
ant duty under which it will move with delight. 
All low, base, vile, considerations will flee before it. 
Even death itself will flee from its presence, and 
the loving, obedient believer will not die; he will 
only sweetly fall asleep in Jesus. Nor will the 
judgment-seat^ have any terrors or alarms for such 
a one. "Herein is our love made perfect that we 
may have boldness in the day of judgment, because 
as he is so are we in this world. There is no fear 
in love ; but perfect love casteth out fear, because 
fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made 
perfect in love." 

If these things are so how should we long for 
this supreme, this perfect love ! How little all other 
things seem in comparison with this! This only is 
religion — the religion of the Bible. This binds 
again the soul to God. Too little meaning is at- 
tached to this word "religion" at the present time. 
With many it means an outwardly moral life. With 
others it signifies only a slight sorrow for sin and a 
feeble determination to be better. With others it 
is accepting a creed, joining a Church, going through 
the routine of its services and conforming to its 
rules. But in the Bible it is love, love to God and 



PERFECT LOVE.. 



123 



love to man. All mere pretensions or professions 
are vain in the sight of God. This brings God into 
the soul, and brings the soul into God. And hence 
the necessity of a divine transformation and regen- 
eration by which all this may be realized and en- 
joyed. O, if men, if professing Christians, only 
understood their real interests, their real happiness 
and well-being, how would they long for this love! 
How would they restlessly cry out for it until it 
welled up in all its fullness in the depths of their 
conscious being ! 

I have only one more thought here. It is this : 
That without this love man is and must be su- 
premely miserable in the life that now is and in the 
life which is to come. One of the most fearful 
utterances in the book of God is this : " If any man 
love not the Lord J esus Christ let him be anathema. 
Maranatha." There is an eternal curse which rests, 
which must abide, upon the soul which does not 
love God supremely. In that soul Jehovah is de- 
throned, obedience to him is denied, union with him 
can not be enjoyed. The world or self or sin or 
Satan sits upon the throne which belongs only to 
God, and what must be the consequences? Hear 
what God says in his "Word: "Ye adulterers and 
adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the 
world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, 
will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God." 
And if " sin reign in our mortal body, that we should 
obey it in the lusts thereof, it reigneth unto death," 
it reigneth unto eternal condemnation. If Satan 



124 



SERMONS. 



reign in our hearts, if we are his subjects, his cap- 
tives, he reigns to ruin and destroy. He is a mur- 
derer, a murderer of souls from the beginning. Does 
self reign? "He that soweth to the flesh," to his 
passions, his desires, his self-will, his enmity against 
God, "shall of the flesh reap corruption," death, 
damnation. Nor can these things be escaped. They 
are legitimate, ordained results, fixed as the laws of 
attraction and gravitation, eternal in the divine pur- 
pose. He that does not in a measure, or degree, at 
least, obey this command, carries in his own breast 
all the elements of a final and eternal hell. Every 
lost spirit in that abode of darkness and woe, from 
the lost archangel, through every rank of demons 
and condemned souls, realizes the utter absence of the 
love of God. Hence their misery, their sorrow, 
their "weeping, and the gnashing of their teeth." 
O then, ye immortal beings, come and put your- 
selves under the redeeming, transforming, sanctify- 
ing agencies of the blood of the Lamb and the 
power of the Holy Ghost, that ye may escape these 
legitimate consequences of your present sinful con- 
dition ! Delay no longer. Come back to your Father. 
He waits and longs for your return. And, if you 
will come, he will receive you. He will give you 
a new heart to love and obey him. Then your 
happiness will begin; and, if you are faithful in 
your obedience, your happiness will be eternal. 



FULL REDEMPTION 



125 



VII. 

FULL REDEMPTION". 

Text: "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is 
made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and 
redemption ; that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let 
him glory in the Lord " — 1 Corinthians i, 30, 31. 

In the divine economy, Christ is every thing — 
"all in all" — to our humanity. By sin we have 
lost every thing; by Christ every thing is regained. 
By sin Paradise was lost; by Christ Paradise is 
restored. If, therefore, Christ is ours, we have 
every thing with him essential to our present and 
eternal well-being. 

So thought and so wrote the great apostle to 
the Gentiles, To him Christ was the great central 
sun of the system of religion which he had em- 
braced, filling the whole horizon of his vision, and 
eclipsing every lesser light with the brightness of 
his glory. Compared with the system of the relig- 
ion of the Cross, systems of Grecian and Roman 
philosophy were vain and foolish to him. And 
what to the Greek was " foolishness," and " to the 
Jew a stumbling-block," was regarded by him as 
exhibiting "the wisdom of God and the power of 
God." He recognized clearly the fact that those 
who had been employed to proclaim this system 



126 



SERMONS. 



were apparently and designedly weak and feeble, 
foolish and despised, base, and nothing in the eyes 
of the world ; but that, through the power of Christ 
abiding upon them, they were enabled "to confound 
the wise and the mighty, and to bring to naught the 
things which are." 

The glory of Christ's character and work is so 
great that we can not fully realize or comprehend 
it. But there are certain features of both his char- 
acter and work that we may recognize, embrace, 
and appropriate to ourselves. Great and glorious 
as Christ is as a Savior, Sanctifier, and Redeemer, 
he is ours — made so, provisionally, in God's gracious 
purposes ; made so, effectually, by faith in him. 
The difficulty with most of us is to apprehend 
Christ as a full, a complete, a perfect Savior. We 
rest in mere glimpses of his character, or in one- 
sided views of him. Sometimes we think of him 
as the supreme, the infinite AYisdom, the divine 
Logos, who was in the Father's bosom from eter- 
nity ; or we view him as the Son of man, having 
power on earth to forgive sins. But too few regard 
him as our sanctification, and our complete redemp- 
tion. And yet, is it not our privilege, is it not our 
duty, to claim Christ in all his character, relations, 
and offices, as he is revealed to us? Is it not only 
thus that we come to know him fully, and to realize 
the fullness of his redeeming work? We need to 
look upon Christ as a whole Savior, and so to real- 
ize, through him, a whole, a perfect salvation. There 
can be no doubt that Christ designs to redeem his 



FULL REDEMPTION. 



127 



people — all who believe on him — from all that sin 
has wrought in our physical, mental, and spiritual 
nature ; to do this unconditionally for all infants, 
idiots, and imbeciles, and conditionally for every 
adult, intelligent believer. 

In considering these thoughts, it is well to bear 
in mind several postulates clearly presented in the 
Word of God. By sin man lost the favor and 
friendship of God, and fell into ignorance, blind- 
ness, idolatry, and superstition. He also fell under 
the guilt, power, and condemnation of sin, and lost 
his sonship, and consequently his heirship. Fur- 
ther, he lost God's image from his soul, which con- 
sisted in " knowledge and true holiness." He also 
was made subject to disease, pain, weariness, be- 
reavement, sorrow, and death; in a word, to the 
thousand ills of his mortal life ; and, finally, to 
eternal death. These things are clearly taught us 
in the Word of the Lord, and are abundantly con- 
firmed in the sad history of the race. Now, Christ 
is presented to us as the Redeemer, Deliverer, and 
Restorer from all these conditions and results of sin. 

He is our Wisdom. He has come to restore the 
knowledge of God to the race; to make us under- 
stand his personality, his character, his relations to 
us, and our relations to him; to make known his 
will concerning us. No truer words were ever 
written than these: " The world by wisdom [its 
wisdcgn] knew not God." The history of Egypt, 
Greece, and Rome, of India and China, as well as 
of ancient and modern philosophy, abundantly con- 



128 



SERMONS. 



firms this. Well did the Christ say : " Xo man 
knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom 
he revealeth hiru." "No man hath seen God at 
any time: the only -begotten Son, who is in the 
bosom of the Father, he hath declared ["revealed, 
manifested,] hiin." He further declared that he 
knew the Father, that he was one with him, and 
that he had come forth from him for the pur- 
pose of making him known. And not only so, he 
declared that in this knowledge there was " life 
eternal n for our humanity. This is wisdom above 
all that which might be derived from merelv human 
sources : it is wisdom from God. This wisdom was 
manifested in his incarnation, life, teaching, sacri- 
ficial death, resurrection and glorification, and the 
giving of the Holy Spirit to mankind. These two 
great truths, which Christ taught and confirmed in 
his wonderful life, are worth more to our race than 
all the wisdom of this world, in all its schools and 
systems of science and philosophy. " God so loved 
the world that he gave he gave his only-begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life." _ "And this is the 
will of God, that whoever seeth the Son and be- 
lieveth on him, may have everlasting life : and I 
will raise him up at the last day." 

But not only did Christ thus become the wisdom 
from God, he also revealed man to himself — what 
he is, his character, his origin, his relations tp God 
and his fellow -men, and his future and endless 
destiny. And the need of this wisdom from God 



FULL REDEMPTION. 



129 



is clearly seen at the present time, when such crude, 
worthless, and even ridiculous theories of man are 
proclaimed by those who profess the greatest wis- 
dom. Through Christ man not only knows God, 
but he also knows himself. 

But Christ is not only wisdom, he is also 
Righteousness. He is thus in himself. He is the 
Jehovah Tsidkenu — "the Lord our righteousness." 
He is that "Holy One," "The Just," "The Right- 
eous," "The Holy One and the Just," "The Holy 
One of Israel," " The Holy One of God." Thus 
he is designated by angels, men, and demons. Thus 
he is declared by the Eternal Father and the Eter- 
nal Spirit. Righteous in himself, he has procured 
righteousness for our guilty race. He has made it 
possible for sin to be forgiven ; and, as a result of 
this, that its guilt and condemnation may be re- 
moved, and its power over man be broken and 
destroyed. By his sufferings and death he has so 
provided that man thus forgiven shall be constituted 
righteous, and dealt with as if he had never sinned, 
while all the penalties of the divine law, to which 
he had been exposed, are suspended, and he is secure 
from the legitimate results of its willful violation. 
Now, all this is not because Christ is righteous in 
himself, or because he has perfectly fulfilled the law 
of God; but, because of his death, in making an 
atonement for sin. The whole scheme is wonderfully 
made known to us in Romans iii, 24-26 : " Being 
justified [constituted righteous] freely by his grace, 
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ; 



130 



SERMONS. 



whom God hath set forth [appointed, ordained], to 
be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to 
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins 
that are past, through the forbearance of God, to 
declare at this time his righteousness that he might 
be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in 
Jesus. " This righteousness, then, is not by the law; 
that only gives ".the knowledge of sin" and utters 
its condemnation against the transgressor. But it 
is in and by Christ to every one that believeth. 

Sometimes the word "righteousness" is used 
comprehensively, embracing both the negative and 
the positive side of Christ's work. But here it is 
limited by its connections to the negative side in 
the forgiveness of our sins and the remission of their 
penalties. It regards here the wonderful change in 
our relations rather than the change in our charac- 
ter and condition. We can conceive it possible for 
a man to be forgiven all his sins, and yet to retain 
all the tendencies or proclivities of his nature, so 
that he will become guilty again of the same sins 
for which he had been forgiven. But Christ did 
not leave man in this state. His redemptive work 
would have been imperfect and incomplete had he 
thus done; and an imperfect Redeemer is no Re- 
deemer at all. 

Man not only needs the establishment of new 
relations between himself and his God, but he needs 
the impartation of a new character and a new life. 
Hence it is said in the text that he is our Sanctifiea- 
tion. Sin has not only brought guilt and con- 



FULL REDEMPTION. 



131 



demnation and wrath upon the soul, but also the 
impairment of the will, the perversion, defilement, 
and impurity of all the moral powers. What is 
wanted, then, is not only forgiveness, but cleansing, 
purity, moral wholeness, and the strengthening of 
the will-power, by which it will be brought into 
harmony with the will of God. All this is in Christ 
Jesus. This was revealed to Paul in his remarkable 
commission: "That they [the nations] may receive 
the forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them 
which are sanctified by faith that is in me," (Acts 
xxvi, 18.) For this the Son of God prayed, "Sanc- 
tify them through thy truth ; thy word is truth." 
Paul, in a subsequent chapter, writes to the Corin- 
thians, saying : " But ye are washed, ye are sanctified, 
ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and 
by the Spirit of our God." He also says, in his 
letter to the Ephesians : " Christ loved the Church 
and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and 
cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word." 
To the Son of God was given the wonderfully pre- 
cious name of "Jesus, because he would save his 
people from their sins;" not only from outward sins 
and their effects, but also from inward sin and its 
impurity. The two are coupled together in the 
announcement: "If we confess our sins, he is faith- 
ful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us 
from all unrighteousness." From him also, and 
provided in his great redeeming scheme, comes the 
Holy Spirit, who, as "the executive of the God- 
head," renews the nature, imparts the new life, and 

12 



132 SEEMOXS. 

cleanses and sanctifies the soul. Just at the moment 
when our sins are forgiven, and we stand acquitted 
of their penalties, the Holy Spirit comes forth not 
only to attest that the work is done, but also to 
regenerate the soul and place it in a condition of 
initial sanctification. Thus the justified believer is 
also sanctified in part. 

Christ is not only his wisdom and righteousness, 
he is also now in part his sanctification, and when 
he fully believes in him he will be sanctified wholly. 
Christ is also our Redemption. This comprehends 
the full, final, and everlasting deliverance of our 
soul and body, as well as of our world, from all the 
effects of sin. Pardoned and justified we may be, 
and even sanctified wholly, but we are still in the 
body, still in this world, liable to a thousand evils, 
and to death. Now Christ proposes our complete 
deliverance, our full redemption. We are now sub- 
jected to bodily weaknesses, to pain, sickness, sor- 
row, poverty, bereavement, and temptation. We 
have also mental disabilities under which we often 
groan. Weakness of memory, narrowness of views, 
limited conceptions, dullness of mental vision, errors 
in judgment, ignorance of many things. We are 
often making mistakes, committing blunders, dis- 
playing weaknesses which mortify us, humble us, 
and, at times, almost crush us. And we cry out in 
our agony, " Shall we never be delivered from these 
things ?" And the answer comes back to us, " Yes, 
Christ is your Redeemer, and he will not fail nor be 
discouraged until he shall have completed his work." 



FULL REDEMPTION. 



133 



Then, also, we must die. By a mysterious pro- 
cess the earthly house of this tabernacle must be 
dissolved and return to the dust and ashes of the 
sepulcher. We look into the grave and ask : " Must 
this dust lie there forever? Will there be no resur- 
rection — no future life? Does the grave contain 
all? And must we remain forever in its prison- 
house?" But while we look at death, and stand 
upon the verge of the dark grave, we hear the 
Redeemer's voice, saying : " I will ransom them 
from the power of the grave. I will redeem them 
from death. O, death, I will be thy plagues! O, 
grave, I will be thy destruction!" And then, when 
J esus comes- into this world, he stands up in the 
midst of its graves, and in the presence of the dead 
of more than a hundred generations, and says: "I 
am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth 
in me, though he were dead, yet sh£ll he live ; and 
whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never 
die." Then, too, he tells us that the time is com- 
ing on, and we are not to be astonished at the 
utterance, "When all that are in the graves shall 
hear his voice, and shall come forth." To give us 
undoubted assurance of this, he himself dies and 
rises from the grave. He invades the domain of 
death as a conqueror, chains him to his chariot- 
wheels and, dragging him to the portals of the sky, 
he henceforth puts into the mouth of his Church the 
triumphant utterance : " O death, where is thy sting ? 
O grave, where is thy victory ? The sting of death 
is sin, the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be 



134 SERMONS. 

to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord 
Jesus Christ." 

And the time comes on when every sepulcher 
will yield up its dead, when the mountain will bare 
its brow and open its seamy sides, and the plains 
and valleys of earth will give up their deposited 
dead, and the sea shall pour forth from its coral 
coffins and slimy weeds, the dead which are in it; 
and death and Hades shall also restore their dead. 
O, then our redemption will be complete ! And 
then glorified humanity in Christ, robed, pure, dia- 
demed, with harps of gold and songs of joy, will 
" sing of redemption forever and ever." I have not 
time to dwell upon the redemption of our world. I 
can only say that Christ will never cease his work 
until our world, which is " groaning and travailing 
in pain until now, waiting with us for the adoption — 
that is, the redemption — of our body," shall be puri- 
fied by fire from the foul presence and breath of 
sin and Satan and demons dire, and there shall be 
" new heavens and a new earth, in which righteous- 
ness will dwell forever." O thou blessed Redeemer, 
hasten on the glorious time ! 

Now Christ is all these things in himself, and he 
proposes to do all this work for us and for our world. 
But how does he become, or how is he made thus to 
us? He is made all these things to us "of God" 
This is in accordance with his divine ordination and 
appointment. u Whom God hath set forth [fore- 
ordained] to be a propitiation through faith in his 
blood." He is the "Lamb slain from the founda- 



FULL REDEMPTION. 



135 



tion of the world" in God's purposes, for the re- 
demption of the race. " The Father sent the Son 
to be the Savior of the world." So Christ regarded 
himself and his mission. In his intercessory prayer 
he says, " For their sakes I sanctify myself, that 
they also might be sanctified through the truth." 
Thus he stands pledged before the universe — heaven, 
earth, and hell — to do this work for all who believe 
and obey him. 

And so it is according to God's provision and 
promise. What his great heart of infinite love pur- 
posed to do for fallen man he has done provision- 
ally in the atoning work of his only-begotten Son. 
To do this " he spared not his own Son, but deliv- 
ered him up for us all." He made him for a 
" little while lower than~ the angels, for the suffer- 
ing of death; that he by the grace of God should 
taste death for every man." " "What the law could 
not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God 
did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sin- 
ful flesh ; and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh ; 
that the righteousness of the law might he fulfilled 
in us." And these provisions are infinite in merit, 
in extent, and in power. Wisdom, righteousness, 
sanctification, and redemption are amply provided 
for every soul of man. They are all ready to be 
made over to us on the performance of the most 
simple conditions. And what shall I say of the 
promises? They are, to use the words of Peter, 
"exceeding great and precious." They are com- 
mensurate with the provision and the purpose of 



136 SERMONS. 

God in Christ. All, all are invited to come and 
partake of these benefits, and to come now. None 
are too vile, too guilty, too sin-stained to come. O, 
what a wonder that a world of dying sinners does 
not come and accept the proffer and the promise ! 
Here, then, in few words, are presented the ordina- 
tion, provision, and promise of God. 

Now, all these may and do exist in their full- 
ness, and are available now; but how are they to 
become effectual ? How is he to become thus to us? 
Blessed be God ! this is also provided for. There 
is an Almighty Agent, " the executive of the God- 
head," who has been secured to do this for us, to 
make effectual all these provisions for us. Christ's 
work, we have seen, was provisional ; the work of 
the Holy Spirit is effectual. What Christ purchased 
for us the Holy Spirit brings to us. It is by his 
presence and " power that Christ is made to us wis- 
dom and righteousness, sanctification and redemp- 
tion." When Christ was upon earth he said to the 
poor woman, "Thy sins are forgiven thee;" now 
he is in the heavens, the Holy Spirit comes and 
bears his witness in the soul that its sins are for- 
given for Christ's sake. When Christ was upon the 
earth he said to the leper, " I will ; be thou clean." 
Now he is on the throne, the Spirit applies the 
blood to the leprous soul and makes it conscious of 
cleansing and purity. 

The only thing now remaining to notice is the 
connecting link, the bond, by which the whole is 
consciously realized by the soul, and that is faith. 



FULL REDEMPTION. 



137 



The whole of Christ's work for us, his provisions 
and promises, are made available by this instrument. 

We may have all that our faith will grasp or 
embrace. For instance, here is a sinner who feels 
his need of Christ, of the forgiveness of his sins. 
What is he to do? He can not save himself. He 
can not make himself righteous. Where shall he 
go? He learns that Christ died that his sins may 
be forgiven him ; that through his blood he, even 
he, may be saved. He comes to him penitently, 
believingly; trusts in him with all his heart; and 
he is forgiven, saved, and " clothed with righteous- 
ness divine." Some time subsequently to this he 
feels the remains of sin in his heart. He is con- 
scious of corruptions in his nature which ought to 
be removed. Now he is made to understand that 
Christ not only can forgive sins, but that he can 
"cleanse us from all unrighteousness." He accepts 
joyfully the provision — he trusts in the cleansing 
blood ; and now the sanctifying Spirit comes into 
his soul, and through Christ he is sanctified wholly ; 
he is cleansed from all sin. Thus what Christ is 
in his relations to our humanity, thus what he has 
done by way of provision and promise, becomes 
effectual in the believer by the mighty working of 
the Holy Spirit. 

And so, if he is faithful unto death, he w r ill ulti- 
mately be a glorified, a ransomed soul before the 
throne; and when all is completed soul and body 
will bear the glorious image of the Redeemer for- 
ever and ever. Now, in all this there is no occasion 



138 SERMONS. 

for boasting on the part of the saved, sanctified, or 
glorified man. All that he is, all that he has, is in 
Christ. He was only a poor sinner, ready to per- 
ish. He was full of corruption, defilement, and 
depravity. He was " without strength/' encom- 
passed with weaknesses, frailties, follies, an^l infir- 
mities. If, therefore, he has wisdom, it is in Christ ; 
if he has righteousness, it is in Christ ; if he has 
sanctification, it is in Christ; and if he has com- 
plete and eternal redemption, it will all be in Christ. 
Where is boasting, then? Verily, it is forever ex- 
cluded. How clearly we are made to see, in the 
light of this text, that Christ is just the Savior 
we need ! How true it is, what we stated at the 
commencement of the sermon, that Christ is every 
thing to us! 

"He is a path, if any be misled; 
He is a robe, if any naked be; 
If any chance to hunger, he is bread; 
If any be a bondman, he is free. 
If any be but weak, how strong is he! 
To dead men life he is ; to sick men health ; 
To blind men sight ; and to the needy wealth : 
A pleasure without loss, a treasure without stealth." 

—Giles Fletcher. 

All the wants of our nature, all the longings of our 
souls, are met in him. He is a perfect Savior for 
sinful and dying men. 

And if we are in him, how safe we are! If he 
is our righteousness, the sword of divine justice can 
not touch us ; the thunders of the eternal law can 
not disturb or destroy us. Even grim death him- 



FULL REDEMPTION. 



139 



self loses his terrors, his sting, and the grave has 
no more victory. 

A few years ago an American sailor, of English 
birth, was arrested by the Spanish authorities for 
some offense for which he was not justly chargeable, 
or which, at least, was not worthy of death. But 
he was condemned, notwithstanding this, to die. 
Both the American and British consuls, however, 
determined that he should not be put to death. 
When, therefore, the poor fellow was brought forth 
into the plaza, pinioned, and made to kneel down, 
a platoon of soldiers was drawn up, ready to fire at 
the word of command. Then the American consul 
rushed up and threw over him the banner of the 
Stars and Stripes, and the British consul threw over 
him the Union Jack, and they said to the execu- 
tioners, u Now fire if you dare !" And so the man 
was saved. So the soul in Christ is secure. No one 
in heaven, earth, or hell can injure or harm him. 

Come, then, dying sinners, and accept this Christ. 
Avail yourselves of these rich and exhaustless pro- 
visions of infinite love. Then you may realize and 
say, " Jesus, with all in him, is mine." This will 
secure the blessedness of your life-time, and the 
glory of the eternal ages. But come now ; for the 
proffer will not always be made. 

And ye who have realized Christ as your right- 
eousness, but not yet as your complete sanctification, 
now claim your full privilege. Now take him as 
your perfect Savior. Now trust in the blood which 

cleanseth from all sin. Now open your heart, and 

13 



140 



SERMONS. 



let the Spirit renew, transform, hallow, and sanctify 
you wholly. You are to be sanctified, as well as 
justified by faith, simple, appropriating faith. All 
things are ready; let the work be done to-day. 

"The Father gives the Son; 

The Son, his flesh and blood ; 
The Spirit seals, and faith puts on 
The righteousness of God." 



Amen. 



THE TRANSFORMING VISION. 141 



THE TRANSFORMING VISION 

Text: "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass 
the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from 
glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 11 — 2 Corin- 
thians iii, 18. v 

For forty days Moses, the mediator between the 
Lord and Israel, was upon Mount Sinai, witnessing 
the sublime terrors associated with the giving of the 
law, listening to the voice of God and beholding 
his glory. And so long had he been bathed and 
baptized with that glory that, all unconsciously to 
himself, his very countenance was illuminated with 
its divine radiance. When, at length, he came down 
from its thunder-riven summit, such was the bright- 
ness of his face that "the children of Israel could 
not look steadfastly" upon it. He, therefore, took 
a thin veil and covered his face, so that their eyes 
might not be dazzled or blinded by the sight. This 
was probably emblematical of two things: first, of 
the glory of the law as an emanation of the divine 
glory and a transcript of the divine will; and, sec- 
ondly, of the veil which for ages was to remain 
upon it on account of the blindness of the minds 
and the hardness of the hearts of the Jewish people. 



142 



SERMONS. 



Some think there was also here a foreshadowing of 
the thin veil of flesh which was to enwrap the 
divine glory of the Son of God, by which it was 
softened to the gaze of mortal eyes. 

As an historical fact, we all know how the veil 
has been upon the mind and heart of Israel during 
the by-gone centuries; but we are encouraged to 
believe that the time draws near when, turning to 
the Lord, it shall be taken away, and they, in com- 
mon with all true believers, shall behold as with 
open face in a glass the glory of the Lord, both as 
displayed in the law and in the Gospel. Then the 
transforming vision will take place, and their souls 
shall not only be radiated with the divine glory, 
but also filled with unutterable gladness and joy. 

What Israel will then experience, when its peo- 
ple turn to the Lord, is now the happy experience 
of all who believe in Jesus. All who now believe 
on him behold his glory and are metamorphosed into 
his divine image. Thus the experience of the child 
of God now is in entire harmony with that which 
will be realized by the converted Israelites amid 
the glories of the Millennial era. There was a veil 
upon the face of Moses; there has been for ages a 
veil upon the heart of the Jew; but we all, who 
believe in Jesus, behold with open face as in a glass 
the glory of the Lord. Two thoughts will now en- 
gage our attention : first, the vision and its medium ; 
and, secondly, the transformation and its agency. 

I. The Vision and its Medium. 

,The object of the vision is the glory of the Lord. 



THE TRANSFORMING VISION. 143 



These words are often used in the Bible, and with 
various significations. Ordinarily, however, they 
refer to the manifestations or revelations of God, 
which have been made in various ways and at vari- 
ous times. God would make himself known to man, 
but he can not do so directly. "No man can see 
God and live." He has, therefore, chosen certain 
media, through which he makes himself known to 
us so far as we are able to comprehend or under- 
stand him. Hence we read of "the glory of the 
Lord which abode upon Mount Sinai in the giving 
of the law;" and that the glory of the Lord filled the 
tabernacle, and afterwards the temple. " The glory 
of the Lord shall be revealed;" and "the glory of 
the Lord shone round about the shepherds." John 
says of Christ : "We beheld his glory, the glory as 
of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and 
truth." When, therefore, we read in the text, and 
elsewhere of beholding the glory of the Lord, we 
are to understand that we are looking upon a man- 
ifested, a revealed God. 

But the question is, How can we do this? Not 
certainly with our natural vision. For, in this 
sense, "No man hath seen God at any time." But 
we see him in the ways by which he has chosen to 
reveal himself to us. Primarily, we behold this 
glory in his works. " The heavens declare the glory 
of God, and the firmament sheweth his handi- 
work." Isaiah in vision heard the six-winged ser- 
aphim saying one to another, "Holy, holy, holy, 
Lord God of Hosts; heaven and earth are full of 



144 SERMONS. 

thy glory. " We understand by these ascriptions 
that the wisdom, the goodness, the omnipotence, 
and omnipresence of God are made known to us in 
the works of nature. Not only do we know by 
these works "his eternal power and Godhead," but 
many of the attributes of his character. We have a 
further illustration of the methods which the Lord 
employs in revealing himself to man in the case of 
Moses. He prayed fervently : " I beseech thee, shew 
me thy glory!" How was this prayer answered? 
The Lord said to him : " I will make all my good- 
ness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name 
of the Lord before thee." Accordingly, he placed 
him in one of the clefts, in the rocky sides of Sinai, 
and then the Lord descended in a cloud and stood 
with him there and proclaimed the name of the 
Lord. "And the Lord passed by before him and 
proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and 
gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness 
and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving 
iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by 
no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of 
the fathers upon the children and upon the chil- 
dren's children, unto the third and fourth gener- 
ation." Here was a revelation of his character and 
perfection which is not, and which, so far as we can 
see, could not be made in physical nature. Nature 
knows nothing about mercy or the forgiveness of 
sins. The inexorableness and unchangeableness of 
its laws would seem to argue against both. 

Again, it is said that at the dedication of the 



THE TRANSFORMING VISION 145 



temple "the glory of the Lord filled the house," 
and so awed, subdued, and even overpowered were 
the priests of the Lord that they were unable to 
minister. In this he revealed his willingness to 
appear among men and to abide with them. Isaiah 
also had a vision of the glory of the Lord in his 
temple. Ezekiel beheld it on the banks of the river 
Chebar, and Daniel on the banks of the Ulai. The 
angels reflected that glory on Bethlehem's plains 
when they sang, " Glory to God in the highest, and 
on earth peace, good will toward men." Stephen, 
the proto-martyr, beheld that glory as he stood 
before the Sanhedrin, and he said : " Behold, I see 
the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing 
on the right hand of God." So the glory of the 
Lord has been revealed to men in the ages which 
are past. 

But it may be said that these instances were 
only occasional and exceptional, granted to holy 
prophets, made at the incarnation and for the en- 
couragement of the first martyr. Is there a vision 
of the glory of the Lord which all may enjoy? 
And, if so, what is it? It is to be borne in mind 
that the apostle is here contrasting the vision which 
those have under the Christian dispensation with 
that which was enjoyed by the saints under the 
Mosaical. They saw the glory of the Lord, but it 
was often in dreams and visions, in types and shad- 
ows, although sometimes the outbeaming splendor 
was caught for a moment by the human eye. Yet 
they were ever straining their eager eyes to catch 



146 



SERMONS. 



the full radiance of that glory which they saw so 
dimly. But they went down to their graves and 
went home to God without the sight. Hence our 
Savior said: "Verily, I say unto you, that many 
prophets and righteous men have desired to see 
those things which ye see, and have not seen them; 
and to hear those things which ye hear, and have 
not heard them. But blessed are your eyes, for 
they see; and blessed are your ears, for they hear." 
"These all died in faith, not having received the 
fulfillment of the promises; but they greeted them 
from afar." 

Let us now advance to consider that in the incar- 
nation, the life, the works, the sufferings and death 
of Christ, the glory of the Lord is more fully 
revealed to humanity than it had ever been before, 
or could be in any other form conceivable to us. 
Hence the evangelist John says: "No man hath 
seen God at any time. The only-begotten Son, 
which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath de- 
clared [manifested, revealed,] him." Again, "The 
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us ; and we 
beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten 
of the Father, full of grace and truth." Here, then, 
we have the glory of the Lord manifested in and 
through human flesh; that glory which no man 
hath seen or can see, so veiled in flesh that mortal 
eyes can bear the sight. Like the sun, whose un- 
veiled glory strikes blindness on the naked eye, 
and yet that glory can be seen through the thin, 
fleecy clouds which often mantle his face; so the 



THE TRANSFORMING VISION. 147 



glory of the Lord Jesus was displayed in his mirac- 
ulous works. He touched the sightless eyeballs and 
they saw. At the sound of his voice the lame leaped 
for joy, the lepers were cleansed/the deaf heard, 
and the dead burst their sepulchral cerements and 
came forth to life. On the Mount of Transfiguration 
it was still more clearly revealed to the chosen dis- 
ciples. Peter says of that wonderful scene. "We 
were eye-witnesses of his majesty. For he received 
from God the Father honor and glory, when there 
came such a voice from the excellent glory: This 
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 
The grandest revelation of this glory, however, was 
when he offered himself in sacrifice for the sins of 
the world. This was the grand fulfillment of the 
purposes of his incarnation, and in this was the full- 
est manifestation of his glory the world has ever 
seen. O, when T gaze upon that wondrous cross, I 
see there wisdom in the highest, devising the won- 
drous plan to save a rebellious world. I see justice 
in the highest, demanding a sacrifice of infinite 
value to meet its requirements. I see love in the 
highest, prompting and bestowing the gift of God's 
only-begotten Son. I see holiness in the highest, 
making the great provision by which guilty man 
may be saved, transformed, and fitted for the dwell- 
ing-place of a holy God. And I see power in the 
highest, putting itself forth to save a race of guilty 
sinners. 

Now the Word of God is the mirror, the glass, 
in which we behold all these revelations of the glory 



148 SERMONS. 

of the Lord. Here all these rays of the divine 
glory are collected, as in a focal point, which have 
been shining during the past generations of men. 
Here, again, as in a panorama, we gaze upon it all 
as we turn over the sacred pages. True, we have 
not stood with Moses on the quaking mount while 
its towers and pinnacles were all aflame with the 
divine glory, nor have we been hid in its clefts 
while that glory passed by. We have not stood 
with Solomon in his gold-covered, magnificent tem- 
ple, while the fire was descending upon the altars 
and the cloud of the divine glory filled the house. 
Nor have we been with Isaiah in the temple, be- 
holding the glory of the Lord and listening to the 
ringing and responsive anthems of the Seraph 
throng. It has not been our privilege to stand 
with Ezekiel on the banks of the Chebar, and behold 
the infolding fire with its brightness, nor the won- 
derful wheel with its rings full-eyed, and so high 
that they were dreadful; nor the likeness of the 
living creatures, like the terrible crystal, nor the 
sapphire throne, with its amber color and its fiery 
flame. Nor have we been with Daniel when he saw 
the " Ancient of days" with his snowy garment, his 
throne the fiery flame, and its wheels the burning 
fire, with the countless throngs which ministered 
before him. We have not been with the apostles 
on Mount Hermon, when his snowy shoulders 
became ruddy with the glow of the glory streaming 
through the thin veil of the flesh of the Christ. But 
all this glory is collected here, in the Word of God, 



THE TRANSFORMING VISION. 



149 



all is reflected from its blessed pages as our own 
image is reflected in a mirror. 

AVell has Dr. Storrs said in his semi-millennial 
discourse at the Wicliffe celebration in New York: 
" Inspired minds come out of the past — Moses, 
David, Isaiah, John, the man of Iduniea, the man 
of Tarsus — to teach us. We hear again Elijah's 
voice in the ivory palaces. TTe see, with Ezekiel, 
the heavens opened by the river Chebar. We stand 
face to face with One higher than all, and the ki ug- 
liest life ever lived upon earth. Xot only again in 
lurid column, the pillar of fire marshals God's hosts. 
Not only again are waters divided, and fountains 
made to gush from rocks. Angelic songs are heard 
once more above the darkened earthly hills. Again, 
as aforetime, the Lord of glory walks as a brother 
from Nazareth and from Bethany, strewing miracles 
in his path, showing the penitent his cross, and 
walking with mourners to the tonib." 

So all that patriarch, prophet, and apostle saw, 
and heard, and felt, all that the Son of God did, and 
said, and suffered, is here in this wondrous Book, 
and to it we come to "behold the glory of the 
Lord" 

II. The Transformation and its Agency. 

Four things are essential to such a vision as we 
have been contemplating — the object, the light, the 
reflector, and the power of vision. So here, the 
object is the glory of the Lord ; the light is from 
the Holy Spirit ; the reflector is the Bible ; and the 
power of vision is in the believing beholder. Let 



150 SERMONS. 

us bear in mind what the text teaches. The glory 
of the Lord is not, can not, now be fully seen. It 
is only the image of the glory, its outbeaming splen- 
dor. We behold as in a mirror the glory of the 
Lord. Thus we can gaze upon it with unveiled 
face and unblinded sight; and thus beholding, 
eagerly, steadily, believingly, the transformation is 
effected. We do not see God; but we behold the 
glory of his name, his character, his perfections, his 
will, his relations to us and our relations to him, his 
provisions of mercy and his promises of love. 

But something more than the Divine Word is 
needed, in order that this wonderful transformation 
may be effected. There may be the glory in the 
Word, there may be the object, the reflector, and 
the beholder ; but a Divine Agency must effect the 
work. Hence the apostle adds, " By the Spirit of 
the Lord." It is he who lifts up the veil from our 
hearts ; it is he who gives to us the power of vision ; 
it is he who transforms. Without his agency there 
is a veil upon the Word of God and there is blind- 
ness upon our souls, and we remain with the image 
of the earthly, the sensual, and the devilish upon 
us. It is the same power which brooded over cha- 
otic darkness, and brought light therefrom, and 
order, and beauty. Hence Paul says, in a few verses 
after the text, "God, who commanded the light to 
shine out of darkness, hath shined into your hearts, 
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of 
the Lord, in the face of Jesus Christ." 

There is something for man to do — a very little 



THE TRANSFORMING VISION. 



151 



thing — to put himself in condition to be transformed. 
He is simply to look, to behold. The Word of God 
lays great stress upon this condition. "Look unto 
me and be saved, all the ends of the earth." "Be- 
hold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin 
of the world." And in the text, the attitude, the 
condition of the soul, is beholding. This is not an 
idle or a transient gaze, but an earnest, eager, stead- 
fast look. We all know what an almost infinite va- 
riety there is in the looks of a human being. What 
power to produce happiness or misery there is in 
them! God recognizes the influence of this. And 
how easy it is to look ! What condition could be 
more simple than this? And just as soon as this con- 
dition is met the transformation begins. This may be 
illustrated, in part, in the processes of photography. 
Here, for instance, is the camera. Here is the pol- 
ished plate, of metal or glass. Here, also, is the 
graded light; and the subject is in the chair. But 
before the lens of the camera there hangs a dark 
cloth. Unless that is removed, you might sit there 
forever, and your features would not be transferred 
to tne plate. But the moment that is removed the 
process begins, and your exact features are almost 
instantly secured. Just so in this case. Here is 
the Word, the light, the subject. Why is not, 
then, the subject transformed? Because there is a 
veil upon his heart, and a veil, consequently, upon 
the Word ; and unless he looks as commanded he 
will live and die and perish without ever knowing 
any thing of these redeeming and transforming 



152 



SERMONS. 



agencies. Let that veil be removed, and at once 
the work is begun, and speedily its incipient stages 
are performed. 

What now is realized ? Transformation, meta- 
morphosis, change. The image of the glory of the 
Lord is transferred to our souls, in a sense, and to 
a degree, instantly, just as the light came when God 
said, " Let there be light, and there was light. " We 
can not tell how it is ; but we know that it is so. 
Now, this transformation is not perfect at once. 
The process is an on-going one. We are beholding 
and being changed at every moment of our true 
Christian life. The highest condition the soul can 
be in on the earth is that of " being saved/ 3 although 
this admits of almost infinite degrees. We may 
illustrate again by the photographic art. At first 
the image upon the plate is dim and shadowy. It 
requires a strong light, in a dark room, and the 
practiced eye of the artist to see the outlines of the 
image. But it is made to undergo certain chemical 
processes before it can be brought out fully, so that 
copies may be taken from it. So with us. The 
image of the heavenly is upon our souls the moment 
we look by faith. But it is not clearly or fully 
there : but day by day beholding the glory, the im- 
age is brought out clearer and more distinctly, "from 
glory to glory." With some the process is more 
rapid than with others. It depends largely upon 
the frequency of the vision, and the eagerness and 
trostingness of the soul in beholding. All this work 
is not done when we are regenerated ; and all is not 



THE TRANSFORMING VISION 



153 



done when we are sanctified. The work of bring- 
ing out the full image of Christ in our souls de- 
mands time, trial, patience, effort ; but the mightiest 
factor we employ is faith. According to our faith, 
so it will be done unto us. 

All that we have now said is not only in accord- 
ance with the Word of God; and with the experi- 
ence of all God's saints; but it is also in harmony 
with the law r s which govern the human mind. We 
are so constituted that whatever we look upon with 
attention, regard, and frequency, w r e naturally be- 
come assimilated to it. It is so in the world of 
fashion. Men and women look upon the fashion- 
plates eagerly and with admiration ; and in a few 
w r eeks whole communities, whole nations, are trans- 
formed by the new character of their dress, the cut 
and shape of their garments, the style and size of 
their head -gear. The child, constantly seeing and 
hearing its parents, and looking upon them with 
filial love, becomes like the father or mother. The 
student, in constant communion with his teacher, 
gets into very many of his ways, methods of think- 
ing, speaking, and acting. It is said that because 
Alexander the Great held his head awry all his 
courtiers did the same. Just so with an impure 
man — a libertine. His thoughts, his plans, his pur- 
suits are all along this line, until he sinks in ap- 
pearance and in character to the level of the bestial, 
and finally to the level of the demoniacal. The 
inebriate, from long dwelling over his cups and in- 
dulgence in his unnatural appetites, becomes assim- 



154 



SEEMOXS. 



ilated to the image of the low, the degraded, the lost 
in soul and body. And the miser carries the evi- 
dences of his passion in his sharpened features, his 
cringing, clutching disposition, until he sinks, a 
withered and a wrecked thing, into the abyss of 
perdition. 

But the Christian who beholds the glory of the 
Lord becomes like the God, the Christ he worships 
and adores. He grows daily in his lovely likeness, 
until his countenance often gleams with the heav- 
enly radiance, his eye glints with the divine luster, 
and his cheek glows with the raptures which are 
enjoyed in his soul. And so it comes to pass, as the 
Revised Version has it, that the Christian himself 
becomes a mirror to reflect the glory of the Lord. 
In view of this thought Dr. Duff has said: "A 
mirror may reflect the glorious orb of the sun, but 
does not itself change its nature so as to become 
self-luminous. But the heart that is renewed by 
the power of the Holy Ghost not only reflects the 
rays of the Sun of righteousness more and more dis- 
tinctly, but itself is gradually so transformed as to 
become, as it were, self-luminous. It becomes a 
burnished and shining gem, or diamond, as it were, 
from having been a mere clod of earth. O what a 
glory is here ! What an emanation from the cross!* 3 

Nor can we doubt the power of the Holy Spirit 
to produce such transformations in human souls 
when we know what wonders he has wrought in the 
physical world around and above us. He garnished 
the heavens with their wondrous beauty. He has 



THE TRANSFORMING VISION 



155 



made this world in which we dwell so beautiful and 
glorious, even now, notwithstanding it is so marred 
by sin and Satan's power. What wonders are being 
wrought now in the world around us continually! 
Some of nature's transformations are sudden and 
glorious, some are realized after long years, and 
some after long ages. As for instance the rainbow 
on the blackened bosom of the thunder cloud or the 
Aurora Borealis, sweeping up towards the zenith in 
most exquisite colorings, or as the spring-time after 
the cold of Winter. Or, again, as the gold, the sil- 
ver, and the precious stones, requiring the ages for 
their complete development. 

But the possibilities of nature are wonderful, and 
if the Spirit of the Lord can make out of such un- 
promising materials such precious stones, what may 
he not do with a ruined, yet redeemed soul ? Rus- 
kin thus speaks of the transformations possible in 
a handful of slime : " Take an ounce of the blackest 
slime of a beaten foot-path on a rainy day, near a 
manufacturing town. The slime will usually con- 
tain a little clay or brick-dust, a little soot, a little 
sand, and a little water. Now let it remain in per- 
fect rest, and let its elements gather together, like to 
like, so that these atoms may get into the closest pos- 
sible relations. Let the clay begin. Ridding itself 
of all foreign substances, it gradually becomes a 
w T hite earth, and may be made into finest porcelain. 
But that is not its best. Leave it still quiet, and it 
becomes not only white, but clear; not only clear, 

but hard; not only clear and hard, but so set that 

14 



156 



SERMONS. 



it can deal with light in a wonderful way, and 
gather out of it the loveliest blue rays only, refusing 
the rest. That is a sapphire. Next the sand. It 
will become first a white earth, then will grow clear 
and hard, and at last arranges itself into mysterious 
infinitely parallel lines, which have the power of 
reflecting not merely the blue rays, but the blue, 
purple, green, and red rays, in which is the greatest 
beauty that can be seen through any hard material 
whatever. That is an opal. Next comes the soot. 
It can 't make itself white at first, but, not discour- 
aged, it tries harder and harder, and comes out 
clear at last, and the hardest thing in the world; 
and for the blackness that it had it obtains in ex- 
change the power of reflecting all the rays of the 
sun at once in the vividest blaze that any solid thing 
can shoot. That is a diamond. Then the water 
purifies or unites itself in a dew-drop or crystallizes 
in the shape of a star. So for the ounce of slime 
we have a sapphire, an opal, and a diamond set in the 
midst of a star of snow." So God, by his Spirit, can 
take our poor, sin-cursed and sin-blurred souls with 
all their appetences for sensuality and sin, and can 
. renew, sanctify, and transform them after the image 
of the heavenly and divine. It matters not so much 
what we are or what we have been if we will only 
put ourselves in condition to behold the glorious 
vision. The chief of sinners may become the great- 
est of saints, the vilest of earth may be fitted for 
the glorious companionships of heaven. 

When this transforming process has once been 



THE TRANSFORMING VISION. 157 



begun in the soul it will go on, if unhindered, for- 
ever; in every period of life, in joy and in sorrow, 
in health and affliction, in storm and sunshine. And 
then, when disencumbered of these bodies of our 
humiliation, and we gaze with open vision, not upon 
the mirror reflecting his glory, but upon the glory 
itself, who can tell how rapidly, how gloriously the 
process will then go on? O, "we shall be like him, 
for we shall see him as he is." O, we " shall be sat- 
isfied when we awake with his likeness." Even now 
and here each change from glory to glory, made 
through many disabilities, weaknesses, follies, and 
sins, lifts up the soul to sweeter communion with 
the Father and his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Thus the soul, the whole being of the believer, is 
rising, reaching one eminence of grace after another, 
ascending to sublimer altitudes of glory until, no 
longer "seeing through a glass darkly," it ascends 
to the immediate presence of God and gazes with 
unveiled face upon his glory for evermore. 

Thus we see that the religion of the Bible is a 
glorious religion. It begins in glory arid culmi- 
nates amid the eternal glories of the heavenly world. 
In the first experiences of the believing soul there 
is the glory of pardoning and justifying grace, the 
glory of adoption and heirship, the glory of a new 
birth and a new life, the glory of divine peace and 
rest and joy. Then there follows the glory of vic- 
tory and triumph over our spiritual foes, of commun- 
ion with God, of hope of eternal life. Then comes 
the glory of the cleansing of the blood, by which 



158 SERMONS. 

the soul is made whiter than snow, the glory of 
sanctifying grace, of blessed baptisms into the full- 
ness of the Spirit. How utterly mistaken are those 
who regard this divine religion as a gloomy, senti- 
mental, or puerile thing ! Far from this. It is the 
highest bliss of which our noblest powers, in their 
noblest exercise, are capable. It not only purifies 
and transforms, but it ennobles and elevates man. 
It calls forth his highest aspirations and the noblest 
exercises of his soul, and robes it with a glory 
compared with which all the gilded trappings of 
earth are as nothing. 

Not only so, this religion is constantly and 
eternally progressive. It must be so in the very 
nature of the case. The image of the glory of the 
Lord, into which the soul is changed, is nothing 
less than that of the infinitely perfect God. And 
the finite spirit may be eternally approaching the 
infinite, but can never fully grasp it or become ab- 
solutely conformed to it. Further, it is the highest 
desire of the true child of God to be like God. The 
highest ambition and desire of the young artist is 
to become a painter like Apelles, Michael Angelo, 
or Raphael, or Leonardo da Vinci; or a sculptor 
like Praxiteles, Thorwaldsen, or our own Powers. 
Every student, whether he contemplates the min- 
istry, the law, or medicine, has his model whom he 
aims to imitate. But the Christian, above all things 
else, wants to be like God. His daily song is : 
" Nearer, my God, to thee." His daily prayer is to 
be changed more fully after the divine image. His 



THE TRANSFORMING VISION 



159 



most constant longings are to be with God and to 
gaze upon his glory forever. So it is here. But 
what will it be when the vision of faith is exchanged 
for the open vision? 

"0 glorious hour, blest abode, 
I shall be near and like my God; 
And flesh and sin no more control 
The sacred pleasures of the souL" 

Let us, then, with our faces unveiled, fix our 
steadfast gaze upon this glory of the Lord, revealed 
in his Word and by his Spirit, and reflected from 
transformed, human souls. Let us not be discour- 
aged if our progress while here on the earth seems 
slow. Only let us be sure that it is ever going on. 
Let the Divine Spirit have his way with us. Let 
us submit ourselves fully into his hands. He will 
carry forward the work to completion on earth and 
fit us for the glorious abodes of heaven. He will 
change us from the glory of his presence, his grace 
and salvation on earth, to the eternal glory and bless- 
edness of heaven. Amen. 



160 



SERMONS. 



IX. 

STRENGTH AND BEAUTY. 

Text: "Awake, awake; put on thy strength, Zion ; put 
on thy beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city : for hence- 
forth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and 
the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust : arise, and sit down, 
Jerusalem : loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, captive 
daughter of Zion." — Isaiah lii, 1, 2. 

The Church is the object of God's special care 
and regard. " He loveth the gates of Zion more 
than all the dwellings of Jacob." And although 
in the times of her despondency u Zion may say, 
The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath 
forgotten me/' he assures her by saying, " Behold I 
have graven thee upon the palms of my hands ; thy 
walls are continually before me." With sleepless 
vigilance he has watched over all its interests, and 
with his almighty arm he has guarded his people 
during all the roll of the centuries; and still his 
providence and his power are employed in their 
behalf. 

In the fifty-first chapter of Isaiah the Church, 
in its distress, had cried : "Awake, awake, put on 
strength, O arm of the Lord : awake as in the an- 
cient days, in the generations of old." In response 
to this earnest cry the Lord says to his Church, in 



STRENGTH AND BEAUTY. 



161 



the chapter containing our text: "Awake, awake; 
put on thy strength;" It is thus that the Lord 
often answers our prayers. We often ask him to do 
for us what we, aided by his grace, should do for 
ourselves. He could carry forward his great pur- 
poses in the world, in the overthrow of the powers 
of darkness and the universal extension of his king- 
dom, without us ; but he has not seen fit to do so. 
Instead of immediately exercising his power to bring 
about these grand and glorious results, he employs 
it mediately, through the instrumentality of his 
chosen people. He girds them with power, and 
garbs them with beautiful garments, that they may 
overthrow the empire of Satan, and radiate the wT>rld 
with beauty and glory. 

For this purpose he places within their reach the 
resources of infinite power and strength, and puts 
the wardrobe of heaven at their disposal. All that 
the Church has to do, that it may shake the world, 
and hurl Satan from his throne, and uproot all ex- 
isting, organized forms of evil, infidelity, supersti- 
tion, and idolatry, is to put on the strength which 
God supplies ; and all it has to do that it may dis- 
sipate the darkness of this world, and to make it 
luminous with heavenly radiance, is to put on the 
beautiful garments which Christ has purchased with 
his blood, and which he so freely promises to bestow 
upon his people. This is. what God desires and de- 
signs that his people should be and do. And never 
will they attain their highest conditions until they 
have fully responded to this trumpet-call of their 



162 



SERMONS. 



great Head! O, when will our eyes be opened to 
understand this ! 

The text presents us with God's call to his 
Church : what it implies, and what it commands, God 
is always in earnest when he calls. And so when 
he sees his Church asleep, in bondage, and in the 
dust, he cries out, " A wake, awake \" This clearly 
implies that the Church is in a deep sleep, requiring 
a loud and earnest call to awaken it. Such a state 
is always one of indifference, insensibility, and 
dreaminess. So now we say the Church is not awake 
to its duty and responsibility. The enlightenment, 
the evangelization, and, instru mentally, the salvation 
of the world are intrusted to it. It is meant to be 
"the light of the world/' "the salt of the earth." 
To its ministry and membership is given the work 
of fulfilling the great commission of its heaven- 
ascended head. In its hands are placed the means 
and the agencies by which all these grand results 
may be realized. If it were thoroughly awake, in 
a quarter of a century, if not sooner, this whole work 
could be accomplished. And it is only because its 
eyes are closed, or not yet fully opened, that any of 
its enterprises languish, or its forward movements 
are checked. 

Nor does it realize as yet its privileges and pos- 
sibilities. What it may be, or do, ov possess, or enjoy, 
is not clearly seen or known. Here, for instance, 
is the fountain of redemption, " filled with blood." 
But how few are the witnesses that the blood of 
Jesus Christ cleanseth me from all sin! Here are 



STRENGTH AND BEAUTY. 



163 



the richest, rarest, costliest provisions of infinite love 
for pardon and purity, life and salvation. How few 
avail themselves of them ! Here are " exceeding great 
and precious promises ;" how few know of their deep 
meaning, and the rich stores of grace which they so 
freely offer ! Here is the Holy Spirit, with all his il- 
luminating, sanctifying, and transforming power, like 
the circumambient air of heaven, pressing upon us at 
every point, yet how few open their hearts for the 
admission of the heavenly Dove, or retain him when 
once he has gained admission to the soul ! We are, 
consequently, pigmies and dwarfs, when we ought to 
be giants ; we are weak and helpless, when we ought 
to be "as David, or as the angel of the Lord." We 
are living and walking at a distance, far off from 
God, while our " fellowship," daily, hourly, momen- 
tarily, ought to be "with the Father and his Son, 
Jesus Christ our Lord." 

The Church is also insensible to its actual condi- 
tion. Look at this as presented in the figurative 
language of the text: asleep, unclad, covered with 
dust, and with the bands of captivity upon its neck. 
What sight could be more humiliating or degrading 
than this ! and yet seemingly insensible to all. How 
clearly do these expressions indicate the condition 
of large portions of Zion to-day! How many are 
satisfied with forms, ceremonies, and rituals, and 
know nothing of the saving grace of Christ! How 
many u have a name to live, while they are dead !" 
How many ministers are shorn of their strength by re- 
lying on their education, by misdirected effort, want of 

15 



164 SERMONS. 

sympathy, zeal, and power ! And there are so many 
Churches like that of Laodicea, that imagine them- 
selves to be " rich, increased in goods, and to have 
need of nothing;" while, actually, they are "poor, 
and wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked." , 
And yet they often dream that all is well ; that they 
can live worldly, sensual, sinful lives, and yet go 
down to their graves in peace, and gain a home 
among the saints of God in heaven. Strange, 
dreamy delusion this. A leading minister of a sister 
Church has said, in burning words : " Men who 
rob on a large scale are retained in our Churches ; 
women whose whole lives are given to the goddess 
of fashion sit at our communion tables ; folly flaunts 
its finery in the best pews; we allow a rogue to 
purchase impunity, by endowing a church, or some 
institution ; we connive at the late suppers, the mid- 
night revelries, the waltzes and 6 Germans/ the costly 
dressing, the hollow visiting, the social tippling, by 
which sons and daughters are demoralized,; we stoop 
to wealth, and send our missionaries to the poor." 
Alas, that all these things are so true! And no 
wonder that the Lord shouts in our ears, "Awake, 
awake ! " 

Meanwhile, the Church is indifferent to its dan- 
gers. Perils surround the walls and bulwarks of 
Zion. Mighty conflicts are before us, and the war 
has already begun. Scientific infidelity is pouring 
a steady fire of shot and shell against its ramparts, 
bold and defiant in its assaults, as if confident of 
victory. Intemperance is exerting its fearful power 



STRENG TH AND BE A UT Y. 



165 



to undermine and overthrow the Church, as the 
mightiest barrier in its progress. Enemies of the 
Sabbath are assailing the sacred day, trampling upon 
God's command, and determined to secularize what 
he has declared to be sacred. Rome is expending her 
principal energies in this land, for the overthrow of 
our common-schools and the annihilation of Prot- 
estantism ; and too many of our statesmen are dally- 
ing with the charmer. Communism in various 
forms is ready, with torch in hand, and sword and 
bayonet, to burn, ravage, kill, and destroy, at any 
convenient opportunity. All these evils are notionly 
enemies of the nation, but they are also enemies of 
the Church of God. Then, too, polygamy is a dread- 
ful foe, which the Church and the nation have been 
too slow in arresting and endeavoring to destroy. 
All these things call for the utmost vigilance on the 
part of the militant Church. But in the midst of 
all, how many are indifferent. If they can only 
have their pleasures, their w T ealth, or their luxuries ; 
if they can only be undisturbed in their worldly 
pursuits; if they can only dream their way to 
heaven, they care for none of these things. Now, 
all this may be said to be a dark picture. Yes, but 
it is true; and the darkest thing about it is that 
it is true. 

The call to "put on strength " implies ivealcness 
and helplessness on the part of those who are ad- 
dressed. And this is a truthful representation. If 
we look at the matter of our personal salvation, how 
weak and feeble are we, if we regard the work of 



166 



SERMONS. 



securing it. Then look at the work of the salvation 
of others around us, and of the world, and we have 
no more power to do this work than we have to 
make a world. Xor can we be made to see or to 
feel this too deeply. If we say "we have wealth, 
money, social position, political influence/' it is 
only a question of time when we shall fall before 
our foes. 

But there is another thing which the text im- 
plies which is source of the greatest encouragement — 
that there is a strength which we can put on y and 
this is nothing less than the strength of God, a 
divine power with which we may be girded. Paul 
says. u W hen I am weak/' am made conscious of my 
weakness, and trust in Christ for help, "then am I 
strong." And, again, "I can do all things through 
Christ which strengthened me." "Most gladlv, 
therefore, will I glory in my infirmities, that the 
power of Christ may rest upon me." And so believ- 
ers are said to be "strengthened with all might, 
according to his glorious power." But we must 
pause to examine carefully the peculiar phraseology 
of the text, " Put on thy strength." What does this 
mean? How does this strength belong to us? Not, 
certainly, inherently, but only derivatively. Just 
as the vitality of the air is ours, and as the light 
and heat and motive power of electricity are ours, 
and the power of steam is ours, so the strength of 
God is or may be ours. This strength is pledged 
to us, to the whole Church. "All power is given 
unto me in heaven and in earth; go ye, therefore." 



STRENGTH AND BEAUTY. 



167 



And this " all power " is pledged to every Christian, 
whether minister or laymen, who would do God's 
work. It is ours by promise. " I will strengthen 
thee and help thee." "As thy days, so shall thy 
strength be." "My grace [pow T er] is sufficient for 
thee." "Ye shall receive power, the Holy Ghost 
coming upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto 
me." All the power essential to perform our duties, 
meet our responsibilities, endure our trials, and 
achieve our triumphs, is promised and pledged to 
us by an immutable God. 

When we are united to Christ by a living faith 
his life is our life, his strength is our strength, his 
peace and joy are all ours. And this is our only 
real strength. All else is only apparent, and is 
nothing worth. This is all-powerful and all-suffi- 
cient. Girded w r ith this strength, nor earth nor hell 
can withstand the power of Zion. With this a worm 
may thresh a mountain, a child may be mightier 
than a Samson. This w T as the strength which Paul 
and his co-laborers had; which girded Luther and 
Melancthon, Calvin and Zwingle, Huss and Jerome ; 
which enabled the Wesleys and Whitefield to shake 
all England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and America. 
This is the strength which the Church needs to-day, 
and it is all it needs. All the machinery essential 
for the conversion of the world is in its hands; but 
it wants "the living Spirit in the wheels." It is 
said of Thomas Aquinas, the angelical doctor, that 
coming one day into a room where some monks 
were counting heaps of gold pieces, they said to 



168 SERMONS. 

him : " The time is no more when the Church has 
to say, 1 Silver and gold have I none/ 99 To which 
he answered, " Yes; and neither can it say, 'In the 
name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk/ " 
The loss or the absence of spiritual power can never 
be compensated by any amount of money or any 
evidences of external prosperity. 

If we now regard the call to put on beautiful 
garments, it implies one of two things: either that 
those addressed are unclad, or that the garments 
which they have on are unbecoming or unbefitting 
their character and their relations to God. Indeed, 
the idea of both conditions is suggested to us in the 
Word of God. Many are spiritually naked. They 
may have abundance of garments for their bodies, 
but their souls are unclad. Many a person, with 
well-filled wardrobes of costly and elegant garments, 
has no robe in which to appear before the Lord. 
There, for instance, was the Laodicean Church, " rich, 
increased in goods, and with need of nothing." At 
least so they thought and said. But before God 
they were not only " wretched and miserable," but 
also " blind and naked." So with many now. They 
have plenty of forms, plenty of outside show, but no 
beautiful garments in which to appear at " # the mar- 
riage supper of the Lamb." 

Others have some show of being clad, but what 
kind of garments have they ? The man that had not 
on a " wedding garment" had some kind of a gar- 
ment upon him. But, whatever it was, it was not 
the robe which had been provided for him, and so 



STRENGTH AND BEAUTY. 



169 



he was cast out into the outer darkness. Some 
wrap around them their own self-righteousness. But 
they ought to know that "all our righteousnesses 
are as filthy rags" in God's sight. Others, like our 
first parents, conscious of their nakedness, sew to- 
gether the fig-leaves of an outward morality or 
aesthetic culture, but all this will not stand the test 
when "the King comes in to see the guests." But 
right here, see how dreadful is the appearance of 
Zion. She is in the dust, she is lying prostrate on 
the ground, and the bands of captivity are upon her 
neck. And so now. The world and sin and Satan 
have brought many low, even in the dust. Bands 
of captivity are on their neck and their limbs. They 
are fettered, helpless, dust-covered, and uncomely. 

Here, however, are beautiful robes, offered to all 
the people of the Lord. And the same peculiar 
phraseology is employed in reference to them as was 
used in reference to the strength they are called to 
put on : " Put on thy beautiful garments." In what 
sense, then, are they ours ? They are ours by pur- 
chase. " Christ loved the Church and gave himself 
for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with 
the washing of water by the word, that he might 
present it to himself a glorious Church, not having 
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should 
be holy and without blemish." These beautiful robes 
have been bought for us — bought for us with blood. 
No less a price could have procured them. No gar- 
ments in the universe are so costly as these; no 
robes of Tyrian purple or royal ermine or cloth of 



170 SERMONS. 

gold, spangled with gems and jewels. All the beau- 
ties we see in nature, and all the treasures it con- 
tains, he could create with a word. He could gar- 
nish the heavens with beauty or strew the ocean's 
depths with pearls and line the mountains and sands 
and depths of earth with gold and silver, diamonds 
and sapphires, amethysts and jasper; but to purchase 
these robes he must leave the throne; he must 
humble himself in the dust, he must shed his blood 
and die. No other price would answer. Vain were 
gold and silver, vain were slaughtered hecatombs. 
Justice and the law demanded blood, blood of divine 
merit and value, or no immortal spirit could ever 
wear the white robe. But the price has been paid. 
The robes are all purchased for every soul of man. 
Heaven's wardrobe is full of them. 

They are also ours by promise. "Whosoever will " 
may come and secure one. No one is exempted 
unless he exempts himself. No one is so poor, so 
thoroughly bankrupted, but he may freely obtain 
one. And so if any one comes up before God at 
last without it, he will, he must be speechless. He 
might have had one, but he 'would not. 

But what are these " beautiful robes ?" We are 
at no loss in answering this question. They are 
robes of righteousness. These are the only robes 
which the Bible speaks of for man's immortal nature. 
So Isaiah says: "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; 
my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath 
clothed me with the garments of salvation. He 
hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as 



STRENG TH AND BEA UTY. 171 



a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and 
as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels." The 
white robes of fine linen, spoken of by the Revela- 
tor as those in which the bride of the Lamb is 
arrayed, represent " the righteousness of the saints." 
So we see they are robes bought with blood and 
robes washed in blood; robes which the ransomed 
wear upon the earth arid which the glorified wear in 
heaven. So the innumerable multitude which John 
saw in his vision were " arrayed in white robes, 
and with palms in their hands." No wonder he 
asked as he gazed upon them, " What aire they? and 
whence did they come?" And the answer returned 
tells us all,— u They washed their robes and made 
them white in the blood of the Lamb." 

Let us linger here awhile and consider that every 
thing belonging to the Christian's character, hopes, 
worship, and his everlasting home is beautiful. 
"Beautiful for situation was Mount Zion, the joy of 
the whole earth." "Beautiful upon the mountains 
are the feet of those who publish the good tidings." 
The saints " worship the Lord in the beauty of 
holiness." In the beauties of holiness from the 
womb of the morning, Zion has the dew of her 
youth. Beautiful' are the shining, lustrous robes 
of righteousness worn by the saints. The life of 
the true Christian is beautiful, and his dying hour 
is bright and beautiful with the glory of his present 
Lord. But who can describe the beauty of his eter- 
nal home? Its mansions and crowns and thrones 
and harps, its robes and palms, its gold-paved streets 



172 



SEEMOyS. 



and jasper walls and gates of pearl, its angelic, ser- 
aphic, and glorified companionships. The love of 
the beautiful in nature and in grace is everywhere 
dwelt upon in the divine Word. Even Humboldt, 
in his " Cosmos," acknowledges that the inspired 
writers of the Bible have a greater love for the 
beautiful in nature and a finer eye for its concep- 
tion than , the philosophers or poets of paganism.* 
Very much is said at this time of aesthetic culture. 
Its praises are sung by poets and proclaimed by 
philosophers, so-called. But, in many instances, the 
aesthetics are dissevered from common sense, mo- 
rality, and religion. And the effort is made to show 
that the beautiful can exist, be admired and enjoyed, 
as a simply sensuous thing. Such teachings are 
dangerous, demoralizing, and even ruinous. Well 
does Keats say: "Beauty is truth, truth beauty." 
A standard writer says : " In searching the whole 
field open to his investigation, the most diligent 
student can predicate nothing in respect to what he 
finds that can not be arranged in one of the three 
following classes: truth, beauty, goodness. Among 
the ideas relating to the beautiful are order, propor- 
tion, harmony, grace, perfection." There is beauty 
in the physical universe, in the heavens, and in the 
earth. Indeed, the spirit of beauty is everywhere. 
But the highest forms of beauty are truth, purity, 
holiness, goodness. And to endeavor to dissociate 
these from our ideas of beauty is to leave nothing 
but the shell or the shadow. These are forms of 

* Cosmos. Vol. II, pp. 57-60. 



STRENGTH AND BEAUTY. 



173 



beauty which "will endure. The beauties of the 
earth and sky may change. The highest, sweetest 
forms of beauty in the human face divine may turn 
to the dust and ashes of the sepulcher. But holi- 
ness abideth forever. Jso fires can burn it, no 
floods can whelm it, no age bring wrinkles on its 
brow or carve deep lines into its face. Time ef- 
fects no changes upon it, and even death can not 
deface or destroy it. 

"That spotless robe the same appears, 
When ruined nature sinks in years; 
No age can change its glorious hue, — 
The robe of Christ is always new." 

We now come to ask, What, then, does God com- 
mand us to do f The first thing is, to be awake to 
our actual condition. There can be no improvement 
while this lethargy lasts. The first hopeful sign of 
recovery is an awakening to consciousness, so that 
we can take in a clear view of the situation. A 
healthy dissatisfaction with ourselves will give prom- 
ise of growth, development, and a new life. It is 
not only because our slumbers endanger us that God 
thus calls upon us to awake, but in order that we 
may see our privilege, our duty, and our responsi- 
bility. Every thing around us is awake ; why should 
we slumber? The world, sin, Satan, infidels, Roman- 
ists, liquor-dealers, politicians, are all awake and astir; 
why should the Church lie down in inglorious leth- 
argy ? The hum and the roar of ceaseless activities are 
all around us. Awake ! awake ! Every thing in our 
personal salvation, in the extension of the Redeem- 



174 



SERMONS. 



er's kingdom, in the struggle with our enemies, de- 
mands the most sleepless vigilance. O trumpet of 
the living God, keep on sounding, until the whole 
Church shall be awakened by thy call ! 

Again, Gocl commands us to "put on strength." 
But the question arises, How can we put it on? 
We answer, by prayer. So Jacob put it on when 
" he had power with God and prevailed." All night 
the angel had wrestled with him, even until "the 
breaking of the day." It was an awful night to 
him. How he was made to see himself that night 
who can tell ? His deceptions, his supplanting, his 
subterfuges, his mean, cringing disposition, his un- 
derhanded efforts — all, all were brought clearly be- 
fore him. At length, weak, weary, exhausted, faint, 
ready to die, the angel said to him, " Let me go, 
for the day breaketh ;" but still he struggled on, 
saying, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless 
me." Then the blessing came. There was a new 
name given, which told it all, " Israel : for as a 
prince hast thou had power with God and with 
man, and hast prevailed." Well does Jay remark, 
"He was knighted on the field." His subsequent 
life told of the wonderful change which had been 
wrought in him on that dark and troubled night. 
It was in this way that the psalmist obtained this 
strength. He says, "In the day when I cried, 
thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with 
strength in my soul." So the apostles and in- 
fant Church found it. It was at the close of that 
ten days' prayer-meeting that it came upon them, 



STRENGTH AND BEAUTY. 



175 



through the baptism of the Holy Ghost. It was in 
that upper room, while they prayed and waited, and 
waited and prayed, that the cloven tongues of fire 
came upon their brows; and, better than this, that 
the fire and the power came into their souls. And, 
if we would have this strength, we can only find 
it while upon our knees in prayer. 

There is no secret about this matter. There is 
no talismanic charm about it. There are no occult 
laws governing it. God has made it all plain. Any 
one, minister or layman, can have this strength by 
asking for it as God directs. It is in this way that 
human weakness lays hold upon God's omnipotence, 
and is girded with power. No matter how weak or 
feeble or helpless we are, we can be made strong, 
we can become mighty, and "the weapons of our 
warfare will become mighty, through God, to the 
pulling down of the strongholds." This is the 
strength we may have, and this is the strength we 
must have. And when we have it we can go forth 
to battle as the hosts of Jehoshaphat, singing the 
praises of the Lord, assured of victory before the 
battle is joined; or, like Gideon's band, we can rend 
the night, and discomfit the hosts around us, with 
the shout, " The sword of the Lord and of Gideon." 
No Christian has a right or a warrant to be weak, 
puny, or sickly. God says to his people, "Be 
strong ;" not in their own strength, for they have 
none, but in the strength which he supplies freely 
and abundantly to all who ask him. When will 
the Church awake to understand this? 



176 



SEEM0N8. 



Furthermore, we are commanded to put on 
" beautiful garments ; w not of our own making, or 
our own purchase, or our own merit, but the robes 
which Christ purchased at so dear a rate, and prof- 
fers with such infinite good-will. In fact, we have 
nothing to do but to put them on. They are all 
ready, and all ready now. And they are simply put 
on by faith — faith accepting Jesus Christ as my 
Savior and Redeemer ; faith appropriating the mer- 
its of his death ; faith trusting in the power of his 
cleansing blood ; faith abandoning the filthy rags, 
the fig-leaves, the gossamer vestments of self-right- 
eousness, outside morality, and every thing else, 
and just putting on Christ's righteousness and 
Christ's salvation. And O how he loves to see his 
people thus arrayed ! "As the bridegroom rejoiceth 
over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee." 
" The Lord loveth his people." In them, thus ar- 
rayed, he sees the travail of his soul and is satisfied. 
TThen the marriage-supper of the Lamb comes on, 
no garments in the universe will be regarded by 
him as so befitting as these. "And to her was 
granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, 
clean and white : for the fine linen is the righteous- 
ness of saints." 

Xot only so, it is only thus that the Church is 
made attractive to the world, angels, and men. The 
more the Church is like the world the more the 
world despises and hates it. If we are to conquer 
this world for Christ we must put on his strength; 
and if we are to attract this world to Christ we 



STRENGTH AND BEAUTY. 



177 



must be arrayed in these spotless robes. All the 
gilded trappings in the Church, all its paraphernalia, 
its sensationalisms, its formal worship, its ritualistic 
observances, however gorgeous they may be, do not 
have the weight of a feather with the world. The 
world can only be won by the beauty of holiness. 
Why are we so apparently powerless to-day? "Why 
are intemperance, infidelity, Romanism, and polyg- 
amy so rampant ? It is just because there is a lack 
of this spiritual strength and beauty. Let us have 
them, as we may have them, and the victory will 
speedily be ours. We ought to be shaking the 
world to-day. We ought to be turning it upside 
down. We are doing something; but if we obey 
God's call in the text we shall do infinitely more. 

It is in the spiritual realm as it is in the phys- 
ical. There is a vast amount of unappropriated 
power all around us. For ages which are past, and 
ever since water and fire have been brought into 
contact, steam has roared and hissed and bubbled; 
but until Watt and Fulton and others applied it 
to practical use, it did little more. Xow, however, 
within three-fourths of a century, this power has 
been applied, and has well-nigh revolutionized hu- 
man affairs. Countless millions of wheels are 
whirled by it, on the land and on the sea ; and 
mayhap yet countless millions more will move un- 
der its power. So with electricity. It is in almost 
every atom of materialism, and it had flashed from 
the ragged thunder-cloud, sparkled under friction, 
penetrated everywhere ; but not until Franklin and 



178 



SERMONS. 



Morse and Edison and others had appropriated it 
did the world know that there was a power which 
could light the world and heat it and propel it, 
make it one vast whispering gallery, and burn it up 
at last. Now it is being used in a thousand forms, 
and we do not yet see the end. It is even so with 
the agencies of redemption. Here is the fountain 
of blood, ample, deep, and wide, able to cleanse 
every human soul, and has cleansed unnumbered 
millions. Here it is, right by every man's door, 
by every man's heart. All he has to do is to apply 
it by faith, and he will feel and know its sovereign 
efficacy and power. And yet how few, compara- 
tively, know its power! And here, too, is the 
almighty, the infinite, omnipresent Spirit, ready, 
willing, anxious to save every human soul, hovering 
over us, longing for admission to our hearts, able to 
make the weakest mighty, and the feeblest strong. 
O, to open our hearts and receive the Heavenly 
Messenger, the Celestial Dove ! And he is coming ; 
He will come. The Church will hear his call, and 
awake and put on strength, and put on her beauti- 
ful garments. Then will come millennial glory. 
Then will come the new heavens and the new earth, 
in which righteousness will dwell forever. Hail the 
day! Let it dawn speedily. Let the world be 
redeemed. Amen, and Amen. 



THE REST OF FAITH. 



179 



X. 

THE REST OE EAITH. 

Text: "For we which have believed do enter into rest; as 
he said j As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into 
my rest : although the works were finished from the foundation 
of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh 
day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all 
his works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into 
my rest. Seeing, therefore, it remaineth that some must [should 
Rev. Ver.~\ enter therein, and they to ivhom it was first preached 
entered not in because of unbelief: Again He limiteth a certain 
day, saying in David, To-day, after so long a time; as it is 
said, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. 
For if Jesus [Joshua'] had given them rest, then would he not 
afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth, there- 
fore, a rest to the people of God." — Hebrew iv, 3-9. 

The whole history of the Jewish people is typ- 
ical of the Gospel, or Christian Church. Their 
bondage and deliverance, their covenants and prom- 
ises, their wilderness journey ings, their murmurings, 
unrest, unbelief, and disobedience, the pillar of cloud 
which hovered over them by day; and the pillar of 
fire by night, the heavenly manna, the limpid waters 
flowing from the smitten rock, their entrance into 
Canaan, and their settlement therein, are all types 
of the unbelief and disobedience of Christians, and 
of the richer, higher, and more glorious things 
which are enjoyed by believers under the Christian 

dispensation. As such it is spoken of frequently in 

16 



180 



SERMONS. 



the Word of God, and particularly in this epistle. 
Hence we see that Canaan is a type of the rest of 
the Christian, the unbelief of the Jewish people 
foreshadows the unbelief of many Christians, the 
requirement of faith in order to enter Canaan indi- 
cates the necessity of faith in order to the enjoyment 
of this rest, and the consequences of unbelief illus- 
trate the results of the same spirit in the life and 
death of very many under the Christian dispensa- 
tion. Let us then consider, 

I. What is the Rest which is spoken of in 
our Text? 

This is called in the first verse "His," God's 
"rest." In the third verse God calls it, "My rest." 
In the fifth and eleventh verses it is called, " That 
rest." There are two words employed in the orig- 
inal in speaking of this rest: one signifies the act 
of mitigating, alleviation, repression, and suppres- 
sion of that which would injure, alarm, or disquiet. 
The other word, used in verse nine, denotes the 
keeping of a Sabbath, and gives to us the idea not 
only of quiet and rest, but also of a sacred, holy 
rest, like the rest of God. Then vou will notice 
again, in carefully reading the passage, that three 
periods of rest are spoken of, two of which typify 
the rest of faith. The first is when God had fin- 
ished all the works of creation, and it is said he 
rested. That was God's Sabbath. The second is 
when Joshua had settled the tribes in the land of 
Canaan after they had ceased their wanderings in 
the wilderness. The third is the rest of heaven. 



THE REST OF FAITH. 



181 



The first two periods, or conditions, are only typical 
of the rest which we are exhorted to labor for. You 
will observe that one of these conditions is a rest 
from labor or works, and the other is a rest from 
weary, pilgrim wanderings and toilsome journey ings 
in a desert land, a " waste, howling wilderness." 
Yet two more things are predicated of this rest: 
first, there is a rest now, which we are to enter into 
by faith ; and, secondly, there is a rest which remains 
to the people of God. The one is typified by deliv- 
erance, the other by Canaan itself. 

1 . There is a rest which antedates that which is 
typified by Canaan. It is a rest from the condem- 
nation and the dominion of sin. This is enjoyed 
by the justified believer. Hence it is said: " There 
is no condemnation to them who are in Christ 
Jesus." Also, " We are saved from wrath through 
him." It is this which enables the child of God to 
say, " O, Lord, I will praise thee ; for though thou 
wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, 
and thou comfortedst me." This enables him to 
sing, from a conscious, heart-felt experience, "My 
God is reconciled." This is the immediate result 
to every one who comes to Christ: "Come unto me 
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest." "Being justified by faith we have 
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." 
It is a rest from the dominion of sin. Hence Paul 
says to the Eomans: "Sin shall no more have do- 
minion over you." This is accompanied by a sense 
of the divine favor and the divine protection. 



182 



SERMONS. 



"He breaks the power of canceled sin, 
He sets the pris'ner free; 
His Wood can make the foulest clean. 
His blood availed for me." 

This condition of rest is typified by that which 
Israel enjoyed from the bondage of Egypt, by their 
deliverance from the power of Pharaoh, by the pro- 
tection and guidance of the pillar of cloud and fire, 
and by the manna and water in the wilderness. 
They had trials, difficulties, discouragements in the 
desert, but there were no task-masters, no tyrants 
to trouble them there. Now air this was great and 
blessed, but it was not Canaan. So all the justified 
believer realizes and enjoys is blessed, but it is not 
the full, the perfect rest of the soul which God has 
promised. 

2. Because, you will observe, this rest is occa- 
sioned rather by what the soul is delivered from 
than by that which it may be brought into. There 
is a bringing in as well as a bringing out. There 
is a further, fuller rest of the soul from inbred sin, 
from doubts and fears, and wanderings and unbelief. 
This is not only the rest which God gives, but it is 
God's rest flowing into the soul. This is not typi- 
fied by the wilderness state, but by Canaan itself. 
Mr. Spurgeon has some beautiful thoughts on this 
point in his sermon on Matt, xi, 28-30. He says: 
" This is a second rest — a rest after rest. The first 
was obtained by coming to Christ; the second by 
bearing his yoke and learning of him. So this is 
rest after rest ; a rest to him who has found rest. 
I have looked at this rest after rest as something 



THE REST OF FAITH. 



183 



like this : the Lord J esus Christ gives to his people 
a casket, a gift of rest, a gold box, we may say, 
called rest; and whosoever gets that has rest from 
all his sins. After he has got it he takes and ex- 
amines it. One day as he is looking at it he dis- 
covers a secret drawer and spring. He had not 
noticed that before. He opens it and inside is this 
priceless jewel which he finds had [virtually] been 
given him in Christ. This is the inner rest — the 
central circle rest — which comes only to those who 
know the first rest." 

The promised land was only remotely a type of 
heaven, but it was nearly a type of the soul-rest 
which may be enjoyed here in this world, in the 
midst of enemies, trials, sorrows, sickness, tribula- 
tion, and death. So the Yfesleys regarded it in 
their Hymnology, and so spiritually-minded believ- 
ers realize it in their experience. This is the con- 
dition of entire consecration, fruitfulness in good 
works, and perfect peace and rest into which God 
invites every Christian. Into this rest every believer 
may now enter. Nothing is required but faith. 
"We which have believed do enter into rest" 

Bunyan, in his wonderful dream, speaks of this 
as Beulah Land. But he locates it too near the 
river of death. God, in his Word, nowhere indi- 
cates that we must wait to enter into this rest till 
we die, or until just before we cross the fancied river 
of death. No, the rest is here and now. And yet 
his description of this state is beautiful and blessed. 
He says : " Now I saw in my dream that by this 



184 



SERMONS. 



time the pilgrims were got over the Enchanted 
Ground, and were entering into the country of 
Beulah, and solaced themselves for a season. Here 
they heard continually the singing of birds, and saw 
every day the flowers appear in the earth, and heard 
the voice of the turtle in the land. In this coun- 
try the sun shineth night and day. It was out of 
the reach of Giant Despair; neither could they from 
this place as much as see Doubting Castle. Here 
they were within sight of the city they were going 
to; and in this land the Shining Ones commonly 
walked, because it was on the borders of heaven. 
Here they had no want of corn and wine. Here 
all the inhabitants of the country called them 'the 
holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, sought out/ 
Now as they walked in this land they had more 
rejoicing than in parts more remote from the king- 
dom to which they were bound, and drawing- near 
to the city they had yet a more perfect view thereof." 
So Wesley sings of this rest : 

"A land of corn and wine and oil, 
Favored with God's peculiar smile, 

With every blessing blest; 
There dwells the Lord our Eighteousness, 
And keeps his own in perfect peace, 
And everlasting rest." 

The question now arises, 

II. HOW MAY THIS EEST BE ENJOYED? 

To this question there is but one answer, " By 
faith." Every condition and degree of this rest is 
entered into and enjoyed by faith. 

1. This is so with the first rest enjoyed by the 



THE REST OF FAITH. 



185 



justified soul. Being justified by faith, "we have 
peace with God." And while he continues to believe 
he will have peace and rest. But at the same time 
he will be conscious of the remains of sin in his heart, 
which w 7 ill give him unrest and disquiet, which will 
frequently cause him to be led astray, which w r ill oc- 
casion his frequent stumbling and falling, and which 
will thus produce sorrow and sin and doubt and 
fears. And he will find this also to be true, that 
the nearer he lives to God in this justified state the 
more deeply he will feel the need of this rest, and 
the more earnestly he w r ill long to enjoy it. Often 
the sincere Christian is brought for a time under 
the power of temptation and sin, which will distress 
and trouble him, and occasion much penitence, with 
many groans and tears. Often, too, he will long 
and sigh for deliverance; but then unbelief will 
come in and whisper to him that this can never be. 
And some to whom he may reveal his troubles and 
his longings will say to him, like the spies of old : 
"You never can enjoy this perfect rest here in this 
world. That is a very good land, it is true;" and 
they might possibly add, " Here are some of the 
rich fruits; but you can never enter in." But there 
are others — blessed be God ! — w T ho, like Caleb and 
Joshua, will say, " We are fully able to go up and 
possess the land." It is really wonderful, however, 
that many now listen more readily to the spies than 
to the heroic souls who have entered in, who know 
the land, and want all to enjoy it. 

2. This higher, fuller, perfect rest, this "second 



186 



SEBMONS. 



rest/ 9 is also enjoyed by faith. It is not by works. 
This is the mistake made by many. They think it 
must be entered into by doing this or that. The 
remedy which many earnest, honest souls employ for 
unrest and disquiet is work. Whenever they realize 
strong, overpowering desires for this perfect rest, a 
soul -dissatisfaction, a longing after that which is 
holier and better than their present conditions, they 
at once resolve to work harder, to do more for 
Christ and for humanity. Many wear themselves 
away into mere skeletons, thinking thus to find this 
rest. O that the Holy Spirit would show them that 
w r hile work will bring reward, it will not bring rest! 
The only bridge which passes over the gulf between 
wilderness wanderings, sins, doubts, fears, and unbe- 
lief, and the promised land of perfect love and rest, 
is the Cross, and we pass over it by faith. Some try 
to reverse God's order, and to enter in before they 
believe; but God never permits his order to be 
reversed. If we would enter in, we must first be- 
lieve. And if it is by faith that we enter in, then 
Ave may now believe, and find our long-sought rest. 
Some, O how many! are no nearer Canaan to-day 
than they were a score or twoscore years ago, just 
because of their unbelief. Israel never grew towards 
Canaan. It was all the other way. And into what 
innumerable troubles their unbelief brought them! 
Look for a moment at what they would have been 
saved from had they believed and obeyed God. 
They w T ould never have had those weary wander- 
ings in the " great and terrible wilderness they 



THE REST OF FAITH. 



187 



had never known the rebellion of Korah, the bite 
of the fiery serpent, the want of water, the burn- 
ing desert, or the wasting away of a whole gener- 
ation. So now. If Christians would only follow 
the teaching of God's Word, and the illuminations 
and guidance of the Holy Spirit, how much they 
would be saved from that otherwise they have to 
experience and endure ! When men see their priv- 
ilege, and refuse to embrace it, because of pride, 
prejudice, self-will, or unbelief, they are often left 
to wander in darkness and barrenness of spirit. 
How many would have been saved from bank- 
ruptcy, from dishonor and disgrace, if they had fol- 
lowed right on where the pillar of cloud and of fire 
would have led them ! But they halted right on 
the borders of the land, as Israel did at Kadesh- 
barnea, and began a retrograde course. Then in a 
little while the conscience was not so tender, the 
will-power was weakened, they grew cold towards 
God, and so grew cold towards man. And many 
have thus gone back into entire apostasy, have lost 
their Christian character and name, and brought 
ruin upon themselves and their families. Others 
have remained in the ministry and in the Church, 
mere drivelings or ciphers, cold, spiritually dead, use- 
less things. Others still have gone on sinning and 
repenting, alive in camp-meetings and revival-times, 
but torpid the remainder of the year; while others 
still, and their numbers have been only too small, 
have recovered themselves out of the snare of Satan, 

and the entanglements of worldliness and unbelief, 

17 



188 



SERMONS. 



and have pressed their way by faith into the prom- 
ised land of perfect love and rest. 

We ought not to linger, when duty and privilege 
call us to move forward. Where might many of 
us have been to-day if we had only believed God? 
Well does Bishop Foster say : " Three months were 
sufficient to bring Israel from Egypt into the prom- 
ised Canaan — they were forty years on the journey. 
It was their sin that they were so many times sick 
and weary and foot-sore and heart-sore, when they 
might have been over the Jordan, feasting on the 
grapes of Eshcol and the choicest fruits of Engedi ; 
and more yet, when they might have been driving 
out of their heritage the enemies of the Lord." O, 
then, let us now believe, and now enter in ! Let us 
cry out, in the fullness of our souls : 

u O that I might at once go up, 
No more on this side Jordan stop, 

But now the land possess; 
This moment end my legal years, 
Sorrows and sins and doubts and fears, 

A howling wilderness.' ' 

III. Why, then, is it that so many do not 

ENTER IN? 

There are multitudes who do not enjoy the rest 
which springs from a sense of pardon and salvation. 
This is not simply because they are sinners, or even 
great sinners; but because of their unbelief. No 
matter how great a sinner a man may be, if he will 
give up his sins, and now earnestly, trustingly be- 
lieve in the Lord Jesus Christ, he will be saved — 
and so he will find rest. The Gospel offers salvation 



THE REST OF FAITH. 



189 



now to every one who will accept it. But if it is 
not believed — no matter how often it is heard, or 
by whomsoever proclaimed — he will not be saved. 
The Word preached by the Son of God and by 
his holy apostles, even when Pentecostal fires were 
burning upon their brows, never saved a human soul 
unless it believed. In the divine economy it is ab- 
solutely essential that the Word preached should be 
" mixed with faith in them that hear it." Just as 
even the most wholesome and nutritious food, in 
order to be converted into chyle and blood and 
muscle and bone and brain, must be mixed with the 
gastric juice, even so faith must act upon Christ for 
him to become the Savior of the soul. But when- 
ever a man hears the Word, and believes it, he 
enters into rest, he is saved, and the life of Christ 
flows through every avenue of his soul. What a 
fearful responsibility there is on the hearer, as well 
as on the preacher, of the Word! What reason 
have many to fear that because of their unbelief, 
although a promise has been given to them to make 
it possible for them to enter into this rest, they may, 
after all, come short of it! O, how terrible are 
the consequences of unbelief to the impenitent and 
ungodly ! 

Again, why do not Christians, justified believers, 
enter into this second, this perfect, rest? It is for 
the same reason — because of their unbelief. It is 
commanded, it is provided for them so to do, it is 
promised ; but unbelief says, " No, it can not be for 
me f or sloth says, " It will cost too much of sac- 



190 



SERMONS. 



rifice and effort;" or pride says, " You will lose your 
reputation, your social or ministerial status, if you 
show your special interest in this matter ;" or Satan 
says, " There is a lion in the way, and if you make 
the attempt you will certainly fail." And the soul 
too often listens to these clamorous voicings, and 
takes up its forty years of wanderings in the desert. 
O, how many go as far as Kadesh-barnea, and then 
turn back! If any ordinary Christian will look at 
the map of his religious history, he will see what a 
zigzag course he has pursued, often traveling about 
for years, and then coming back to the starting-point 
again. And then, if the voice of God's Word is not 
believed and obeyed, how often there are seen in the 
life of professing Christians a hankering for this 
world's vanities and pleasures and a longing to go 
back to the flesh-pots of Egypt, willing even to have 
the bondage of the world and sin if they can only 
drink in its " pleasures for a season." I would not 
say of all such that they will not be saved at last; 
but if they are, there will be a fearful waking up 
some time. And what a responsibility they must 
meet for their influence upon the ungodly world 
around them ! How many are perishing all around 
us, stumbling into hell over the fearful examples of 
many who profess to be Christians ! Surely, if they 
would believe God and enter into this rest, their 
character, their experience, their life, would tell fa- 
vorably upon their families and upon all around them. 

Not only so. How soon this world would be 
actually redeemed from its sin and bondage, if the 



THE REST OF FAITH. 



191 



whole Church would enter into this promised rest ! 
How soon Israel conquered Canaan, with all its 
giants and kings, its cities, and its warlike hosts, 
after they had entered into the land ! The hearts 
of the kings melted when they heard that they 
had come. The walls of Jericho fell to the ground 
at the sound of their trumpets, rain's- horns, and 
shouts. The sun stood still over Gibeon and the 
moon over the vale of Aijalon, while they went 
forward conquering their foes. Burning aerolites 
were rained down upon their foes from heaven. 
City after city, kingdom after kingdom, was sub- 
dued. One sweeping tide of victory overwhelmed 
all their foes. In one year the land was thoroughly 
conquered ; and in less than three years it was for- 
mally divided and settled. These are only illustra- 
tions of the speediness of the Church's triumph if 
she would only believe and enter into this rest. 
How soon would hoary systems of idolatry and su- 
perstition fall to the ground! How soon would 
infidelity hide its accursed head in everlasting shame 
and contempt ! How soon would intemperance, 
hell's mightiest vicegerent on earth, be overthrown, 
and go down to a resurrectionless grave ! How 
soon would " the scarlet woman/' that " mother of 
abominations," go down into the abyss, amid the 
shouts of earth and heaven, saying, " Babylon is 
fallen, is fallen, to rise no more!" "A short work 
would the Lord make of it upon the earth." This 
is his ordained method, and he will sweep off one 
generation after another from the earth until he has 



192 



SERMONS. 



raised up a holy Church which will take this whole 
world for Christ. Even the aged saints then will 
conquer the mightiest giants. When Caleb was 
eighty-five years old, he went up with a little band 
and drove out the dreaded Anakims from the mount- 
ain and possessed it for his own inheritance. O, 
then "one would chase a thousand, and two would 
put ten thousand to flight !" 

The goodly land is now before us. Shall we 
enter in? O, says one, "I would if I only knew 
that I could stay there ;" in other words, " If I 
knew that I should persevere." Let me answer 
such a one in the words of Thomas a Kempis, in 
which, it is thought, he relates his own experience. 
" When one," he says, " who was in anxiety of mind, 
often wavering between hope and fear, did once, 
being oppressed with grief, humbly prostrate him- 
self in a Church before an altar in prayer and said 
within himself, 'O, if I knew that I should yet 
persevere/ he heard presently within him an answer 
from God which said: 'What if thou didst know 
it, what wouldst thou do? Do now what thou 
wouldst do then, and thou shalt be secure/ And 
being herewith comforted and strengthened he com- 
mitted himself wholly to the will of God, and that 
noisome anxiety ceased. Neither had he any mind 
to search curiously any further to know what would 
befall him, but rather labored to understand what 
was the perfect and acceptable will of God, for the 
beginning and accomplishing of every good work." 
Dear reader, "Go thou and do likewise." 



THE REST OF FAITH. 



193 



But you ask, Must I not have some preparation 
in order to enter in? Yes; you must give yourself 
up wholly to God; you must completely submit to 
his sovereign and gracious will. Then you have 
nothing else to do but to believe. Just take God 
at his word and act accordingly. Do like the soldier 
under the first Napoleon. One day while his great 
commander was reviewing his troops in Paris he 
let the reins fall upon the neck of his horse, and the 
proud charger galloped away. Before the emperor 
could recover the bridle the soldier sprang out from 
the ranks, seized the reins, stopped the horse, and 
placed the bridle in his hands. "Much obliged to 
you, Captain," said Napoleon. The man believed him, 
and only said: "Of what regiment, Sire?" Napo- 
leon, pleased with his ready acceptance and trust of 
his word, said: "Of my guards," and rode off. At 
once the soldier laid down his gun and said : " He 
may have it who will," and started off for the com- 
pany of the staff officers. "What does this fellow 
want here?" said one of the generals contempt- 
uously. "This fellow," replied the soldier, "is a 
captain of the guard." "You, my poor fellow? 
You are mad to say so," replied the superior officer. 
The soldier simply pointed to the emperor and said : 
"He said so." "I ask your pardon, sir," said the 
general, respectfully ; " I did not know it." 

O if we would thus take God at his word and 
proceed to act upon it, to what a royal line would 
we quickly belong! How should we ride upon the 
high places of the earth ! What power would come 



194 



SERMONS. 



upon us as well as peace and rest! O my dear 
Christian brother, now go out of yourself fully into 
Christ ! Do not fear to venture. Step right out of 
the ranks of ordinary, inconsistent, cold, unbeliev- 
ing professors of religion, and claim your heritage 
in Christ. Do not wait to see, do not wait to feel. 
Believe, believe now, and you will enter in. The 
master of a poor Christian slave became concerned 
about his soul, and would often talk with his slave 
about his spiritual condition. Tom told him to lean 
on Jesus and he would save him. He said, "I 
would lean on Jesus if I could see him." "Ah !" 
said the old servant, "lean on nothing massa, and 
he's thar." One struggle of the soul, one venture, 
and you are in his arms. You will feel the cleans- 
ing blood, and the rest of God will diffuse itself all 
through your soul, hushing it into a quiet like the 
eternal calm of the city of God. "We which have 
believed do enter into rest." "Let us, therefore, 
fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into 
his rest any of you seem [actually] to come short of 
it." " To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not 
your hearts." 

" that we now the rest might know, 
Believe and enter in; 
Now, Savior, now the power bestow, 
And let us cease from sin." 



GOD'S WILL. 



195 



XL 

GOD'S WILL IN EARTH AND HEAVEN 

Text: " Thy will be done."— Matthew vi, 10. 

Ik all the universe God's will is the supreme 
law. It is so because of what he is in himself; it 
is so because of the relation which he sustains to all 
created things. He is infinite in wisdom, power, 
goodness, holiness, justice, and truth; and so his 
will must be always right, always good, always just, 
and always the best. Then he is the Creator, Pre- 
server, and Upholder of all things; all things be- 
long to him, and for his " glory they are and were 
created." The will of God is free ; there is nothing 
above or before him, and no power w r hich can con- 
trol or constrain him. 

The scientists of the present day would make 
God and his will to come under the reign of law. 
But there is no law antecedent to God, and he has 
not to refer to any other power or authority than 
himself. Theologians have spoken of the decretive 
and perceptive will of God, of his antecedent and 
consequent will, and of his absolute and conditional 
will. These are distinctions recognized among them, 
but they simply mean that what he wills he decrees. 
He wills to permit some things and to order others, 



196 



SERMONS. 



to reveal some things and conceal others ; that events 
are conditional, but his purposes are absolute. 

These thoughts will be of use to us as we ad- 
vance in this discourse. It has pleased God, in the 
creation of intelligent creatures, to endow them with 
a will — a power of self-determination which likens 
them to himself. In his original creation this will 
was in perfect harmony with the divine will. But 
all has been perverted by sin ; and the will now, in 
its normal state, is opposed to God, rebellious, and 
unsubmissive. Hence the misery, the wretchedness, 
the sorrows of mankind. There can be no real 
peace to man while he is in opposition to God. 
The Lord Jesus Christ came upon earth, and in 
this, the model prayer which he has given to the 
race, he has taught us to say, "Thy will be done, 
as in heaven so on earth. " There is an order, or 
there are ranks and orders, of intelligent beings in 
the heavenly world, who do the will of God; and 
the will of God is that, as they do his will in heaven, 
so his intelligent creatures should do his will upon 
the earth. How, then, do they do his will in heaven ? 

1. They do it perfectly. They are unfallen be- 
ings. Their natures are perfect. Their wills are in 
perfect harmony with the divine. Like their Lord 
and Master, they can say, " I delight to do thy will, 
O my God ; thy law is written upon my heart and, 
" I do always those things which please the Father/' 
They are " his hosts that do his pleasure they " do 
his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his 
word." Their worship and service are perfect ; we 



GOD'S WILL 



197 



can not conceive of the slightest deviation from the 
right, or the slightest opposition to the will of their 
Lord. All their powers are thus employed, with all 
the fullness of their strength ; none are unemployed, 
and none are imperfectly used. 

2. They do his will constantly. There are no 
intermissions in their service. " They praise him 
day and night in his temple f or, ever on the wing, 
they gladly go anywhere, or on any errand, and in 
obedience to his commands. From their first crea- 
tion until now there has been no period when they 
were not thus constantly engaged in doing the 
divine will. 

3. They do his will joyfully. They take delight 
in it, they find their highest happiness in it. No 
murmur ever escapes their lips, no reluctance is ever 
experienced by them in obedience to the will of the 
Lord, and no hesitancy in undertaking the most dif- 
ficult work, whether it be "from world to luminous 
world, as far as the universe spreads its flaming 
wall," or to the palace of the great, or the cot of 
poverty, or the hut of the lowly. 

Supreme happiness is theirs because of this cheer- 
ful and joyful acquiescence in this divine will. We 
ask now, May his will be thus done upon the earth? 
We answer at once, Certainly, or else the Divine 
Teacher would never have taught us to pray that 
it might. But let us understand what is the peti- 
tion we are taught to utter. As — or in like man- 
ner — it is done in heaven. This by no means im- 
plies that any human being upon the earth can do 



198 



SERMONS. 



this as perfectly as the angels who stand in the 
presence of God. No, this can not be done. We 
are fallen, we are frail. Our powers are limited, 
our knowledge is small, our will power weakened. 
Our best ideas are marred, blurred, almost spoiled, 
by our weakness, our ignorance, and our blindness. 
And yet it is possible for the human heart to be so 
cleansed in the blood of Christ, and so transformed 
by the Holy Spirit, and so humbled and subdued 
by divine grace, that it can do the will of God, 
with its powers, as well-pleasing as the angels be- 
fore the throne. 

Our divine Lord " knoweth our frame ; he re- 
membereth that we are dust." He does not require 
us to love him or serve him or do his will with an 
angePs powers, but simply with the powers tchich we 
have. He knows our imperfections, and how often 
we come short of even our own ideals of his service. 
But if we unqualifiedly submit to him, and in our 
hearts desire only to do his will, whatever our mis- 
takes or follies may be, our doing of his will is ac- 
cepted for Jesus' sake. And in proportion as we 
do this we rise in the scale of being, we come nearer 
the angelical, we come nearer God. We drop the 
sordid, the selfish, the sinful, and the vile, and we 
rise upward to embrace and to do the will of our 
Father which is in heaven. It is so easy for the 
angels to do the will of God. They see him as he 
is — they stand in his presence. They are not 
weighted with cares, anxieties, and sorrows, as we 
are. They know nothing of sin, only as they have 



GOD'S WILL. 



199 



seen its horrible character and effects in this world 
and in hell. They are unembarrassed by their sur- 
roundings, they know no fatigue, or weakness, or 
weariness, as we do. And yet we may do the will 
of God as perfectly, or in like manner, on earth as 
they do it in heaven. 

And so we may be doing it as constantly. Not, 
it is true, without intermission. We require time 
for sleep, for rest. Yet, by day and by night, at 
all times, in all seasons of the year, and in all the 
conditions, relations, and surroundings in life, we 
may do his blessed will. True, we shall see where 
we have failed, where we have made mistakes, and 
we shall be humbled and subdued, and sometimes 
overwhelmed by them; but still our motives may 
be pure, our efforts sincere, and our service accepted 
in Christ. The condition, the habitude of the soul 
may be submission to the will of God, and inten- 
tional obedience to all his commands. 

We may also do his will rejoicingly. Submis- 
sion, resignation to the divine will, in doing or 
suffering, are blessed states of the soul. It is only 
by the aid, the strength of divine grace, that we can 
know what they are. But these are found in Chris- 
tians in every degree. There is a submission which 
is " because we must." There is a resignation which 
says, " It is rather hard, nevertheless." Then, again, 
the will, aided by the Holy Spirit, will yield itself 
up determinedly to the doings and dealings of the 
Lord, saying, "It is the Lord; let him do what 
seemeth him good." But there is a higher condi- 



200 



SERMONS. 



tion of the soul than this when it exclaims, u The 
Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed 
be the name of the Lord!" As Frances Ridley 
Havergal says in one of her precious letters : " Some- 
body wrote me about resignation the other day, but 
I do n ? t feel as if the mood suited at all ; there is an 
undertone of i feeling it rather hard nevertheless 9 in 
it, of submitting to a will which is different from 
one's own. He has granted me fully to rejoice in 
his will. I am not conscious of even a wish cross- 
ing it. I do really and altogether desire that his 
will may be done, whatever it is." On her death- 
bed she said: "His will is delicious; he makes no 
mistakes." It is true, this is not an ordinary expe- 
rience. But, if divine grace can do this for one 
human, redeemed soul, it can do it for another — for 
all. Paul " gloried in tribulations, gloried in infirm- 
ities, necessities, and reproaches, that the power of 
Christ might rest upon him." He said, futhermore, 
"Neither count I my life dear unto myself, that I 
might finish my course with joy." "What mean 
ye," said he to the Ephesians, "to weep and to 
break my heart ? I am ready not to be bound only, 
but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the 
Lord Jesus." Here, then, are redeemed souls which 
rejoice in the doing and suffering of the will of 
God. And these are only representatives of a noble 
army who have rejoicingly done the will of the 
Master. 

Strictly speaking, we never lose our will. In 
fact, God never designed that we should. This con- 



GOD'S WILL. 



201 



dition is not reached by absorption, but by our will 
being brought into complete harmony with the di- 
vine will, so that there will be no jar, no conten- 
tion, no opposition, but entire acquiescence. It is 
thus that our Father in heaven is glorified. If our 
wills were lost, so that, literally, we no longer had 
any will, we should be mere machines — automata, 
to be acted upon irresistibly by agencies which 
would impel us along certain lines, in involuntary 
and unintelligent obedience, just as suns, moons, 
and stars obey the divine command, and are uncon- 
scious that they are doing so. But an intelligent, 
conscious being, possessed of volitional powers, when 
his will is conquered and subdued, and brought 
into harmony with the divine, gives more glory and' 
honor and pleasure to God than a universe of 
unthinking, unwilling systems and suns and stars. 
Indeed, it may be said truly that such a one brings 
more glory and praise to God the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Ghost, than all the ranks and 
orders of angels and archangels, seraphim and cher- 
ubim. They have never known or felt opposition 
to the will of God, they have never been plunged 
into the abysses of sin and misery, their minds have 
never been darkened or begloomed by unbelief. 
But man has — every man has. And when he is 
rescued from such depths and brought up to such 
heights the universe must look on in adoring won- 
der. And because of this redeemed souls shall 
stand, throughout eternity, " nearest the eternal 
throne." 



202 SERMONS. 

' - I ± ^ , \ 

It has been said "that God wills that all men 
should be happy." This statement needs qualifica- 
tion. Butler, in his "Analogy," has well said: "Di- 
vine goodness may not be a bare single disposition 
to produce happiness, but a disposition to make the 
good, the faithful, the honest man happy." In fact, 
God has eternally foreordained that the wicked, the 
vile, the disobedient and unholy shall be miserable. 
"There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." 
God only wills that men shall be happy by their 
being holy, good, pure; and he has made the most 
ample provision that men may be, or become so. 
But, if they voluntarily remain disobedient, unholy, 
and unbelieving, they will, they must remain mis- 
erable and unhappy. There can be no peace with 
God while the will remains in opposition to God. 
And just so long as even there are the remains of 
sin and unbelief in the heart, and in proportion as 
they are there, there will be disquiet and unrest. 
Not only so, it ought to be known that a very 
large proportion of the difficulties and trials and sor- 
rows in life comes from opposition to the will of God. 
We want to be something which our Heavenly 
Father does not want us to be, or to do something 
that he does not want us to do, or to go somewhere 
where he does not want us to go, or to have some- 
thing which he does not will us to have. Hence 
there are cross-purposes, conflicts, headaches, and 
heartaches. So the authoress already quoted says: 
"I doubted and distrusted him for so many years, 
and what I used to call 1 terrible conflicts' I now 



GOD'S WILL. 



203 



see to have been simple unbelief/' arising, we might 
add, from unsubmission. O what a world this would 
be if its lost harmony with God were restored ! 
Such a world it will be in the future, radiant with 
millennial glory and resonant with millennial hosan- 
nas and halleluiahs. 

God's will is the best. We do not know what 
is or will be the best for us. We think we do. We 
think if we could only have our own will and our 
own way we should be perfectly happy. We think 
if we could be rich, or honorable, or healthy, or 
learned as others are, how happy we should be. 
But he who sees the end from the beginning, who 
knows our present and our future, knows best and 
wills best. Sometimes it would seem as if he per- 
mitted us to have our own will and w T ay for a sea- 
son, just to show us how much better it would have 
been had we submitted cheerfully to his will. Then 
the very things which we had thought were so de- 
sirable we find are full of thorns or stings, and 
often we are glad to escape from what we had 
thought was so desirable. Very many of us will also 
remember how we have longed for certain positions 
and relations in life, for the possession of certain 
things, and how we have lived long enough already 
to see that if the Lord had given us our hearts' 
desire, it would have made us poor, or miserable, or 
wretched. Then, again, we have been led by God's 
providence into positions or surroundings where 
every thing seemed to be against us. We could 

not think that this could be in accordance with the 

18 



204 



SERMONS. 



divine will, but that there must have been some 
mistake, and we, losing sight of God's hand, began 
to find fault with secondary causes and to complain 
bitterly of our lot. How often, in the end, we 
have ascertained to our comfort and joy that these 
were just the positions for us, and that our highest 
happiness was found in them. I would not say that 
we always see how the divine will is, or will be, 
for the best. No, we are too blinded; our stand- 
point is too narrow, our faculties are too limited. 
But the revelations of this are so frequent, even in 
this world, that we can not doubt that "what we 
know not now we shall know hereafter." O, when 
the clear light of that eternal day breaks over our 
souls, then we shall see that "he hath done all 
things well," that his will was the best! 

It is our wisdom, therefore, as well as our own 
happiness, to accept God's will, whatever it may be, 
however we may fail to understand it or to know 
the reason why, and cheerfully, joyfully to submit 
to it, or to do it when it is made known. Then it 
comes to pass that whatever God wills, I will. I 
can say "Amen" to God, or, "Not my will, but 
thine be done." It might seem to us that some- 
thing else would be desirable, or we might shrink 
from the trial, the pain, the suffering, or the sorrow 
which we see is coming upon us. We may even 
ask in submission for the removal of the trial, or to 
keep us from enduring it. So did our blessed Christ. 
He cried, "with strong cries and tears," that if it 
were "possible the cup might pass from him;" but 



GOB'S WILL. 



205 



there was the added, " Nevertheless, not my will, 
but thine, be done." So with us in our Geth- 
semanes. We are kneeling beside the bed of a dear 
child. The death-angel seems hovering near. The 
pallor on cheek and brow tells us what must come. 
In our heart-agony we cry : " Lord, spare my child ! 
If it be possible, let this trial pass by." But no 
response comes to us; the shadows deepen, and 
death ensues. We lie crushed, broken, bleeding, 
moaning. The light of our eyes, the joy of our 
hearts and homes, has departed. The world is one 
vast blank. All seems lost. O, then it is hard to 
say, " Thy will be done \" Or, if we say it with our 
lips, our hearts too often fail in the utterance. 

Now, suppose we murmur or repine. Suppose 
we go farther, and rebel against the Lord, and say 
hard things against him. That will not bring back 
the loved one — that will not lessen our grief or pain. 
Indeed, it will intensify our sorrow and increase 
our gloom. But suppose, on the other hand, that 
we can say: 

" Though cast down, we 're not forsaken ; 

Though afflicted, not alone; 
Thou didst give and thou hast taken; 

Blessed Lord, 'Thy will be done.' 
By thy hands the boon was given; 

Thou hast taken but thine own; 
Lord of earth, and God of heaven, 

Evermore ' Thy will be done/" 

We may say or sing this, while our utterance is 
choked by our emotion, while our voice quivers 
with sorrow, and the tears are streaming down our 



206 



SERMONS. 



cheeks, and yet in this very act of submission to, 
and harmony with the divine will, there is a peace 
which the world knows nothing of. 

So in the loss of property. It is grievous to 
see the hard earnings of years swept away by some 
sudden calamity, to be exiled from the home which 
we had endeavored to make bright and beautiful 
with all the adornments of art and taste, and with 
all the comforts and luxuries of life, and to go forth 
penniless into life's dreary wastes. But in the end, 
we may discover that the loss of that property was 
the gain to us of eternal life ; that in the dark night 
of our calamity the stars of God have come out, 
one by one, in all their beauty and brightness; and 
in the exile from our earthly home we have been 
enabled to read our " title clear to mansions in 
the skies. " 

But it is not only in our submission and in our 
sufferings that the petition in the text is answered, 
but by our doing the will of God. There is work, there 
is service for us all to perform, a divinely appointed 
mission for us all to fill — and accomplish. What 
we want to do daily and hourly is to ask : " Lord, 
what wilt thou have me to do ? Show me my work, 
and help me to do it." While it is true that " God 
has his plan for every man," it is equally true that 
he has his work for every workman. First, we want 
to be prepared for his work; and then to do it ac- 
cording to his will. And we are not to choose our 
work, or the field where we are to labor. God is 
to choose both for us. There are a great many 



GOD'S WILL. 



207 



misfits in this world — the laborer does not fit his 
employ, the field does not suit the toiler. And 
this is because of the perversity of our wills, and 
that we have not asked for or submitted to divine 
guidance. This is a source of perpetual uneasi- 
ness, restlessness, and so of unhappiness. O, it is 
so blessed to feel that I am just where God would 
have me be, and I am doing just that kind of work 
which he would have me do! This will lighten the 
heaviest burden, will gild the darkest, bitterest cross, 
will sweeten the cup of sorrow, and will give inspi- 
ration and triumph to the otherwise fainting and 
discouraged soul. 

I . This submission to the will of God is not, can 
not be, the result of any culture or natural devel- 
opment. It can only be realized through the sub- 
duing, transforming, and sanctifying grace of the 
Holy Spirit. This is not a plant of nature's growth. 
It is an exotic from the heavenly climes. It is the 
grand uplift of the soul, by divine agencies, into 
the plane on which angelic footsteps tread, unto the 
sunny summits of God's light and love. It is 
heaven begun upon earth, it is a foreshadowing of 
the eternal glory. When we rise, as we may, through 
oceans of divine grace, through cleansing blood, 
through the almighty agency of the Holy Ghost, to 
where we can rejoicingly submit to, and do, and 
suffer the will of God, we have reached the Beulah 
land, where the sun shines night and day, where the 
celestial city is full in view, where angels walk, and 
the Lord, our righteousness, dwells with his saints. 



208 



SERMONS. 



This is the supremest bliss on earth, the highest joy 
which mortals ever know. 

2. And when our Lord teaches us to pray for 
this he would lead us into the purest, fullest bliss 
which we are capable to enjoy. He does not teach 
us to pray directly for our happiness, but for our 
holiness, our harmony with the will of our Father 
in heaven, knowing as he did that this is the only 
way in which that happiness can be enjoyed. 

And so, while man is disobedient and rebellious 
against God he will be miserable and unhappy. He 
may have wealth, honor, high social position, access 
to every stream of social bliss ; but he will live and 
die a wretched, hopeless man, and sink into the 
darkness of eternal night, unless he submits to 
God's will, and endeavors to do it on earth as it 
is in heaven. 

Let us be in sweet unison with Faber in his 
beautiful stanzas: 

"I worship thee, sweet will of God! 
And all thy ways adore; 
And every day I live I seem 
To love thee more and more. 

Thou wast the end, the blessed rule, 

Of Jesus' toils and tears; 
Thou wast the passion of his soul 

Those three and thirty years. 

And he hath breathed into my soul 

A special love of thee, — 
A love to lose my will in his, 

And by that loss be free. 



I love to kiss each print where thou 
Hast set thine unseen feet; 



GOD'S WILL. 



I can not fear thee, blessed will! 
Thine empire is so sweet. 

When obstacles and trials seem 

Like prison- walls to be, 
I do the little I can do, 

And leave the rest to thee. 

I have no cares, blessed will! 

For all my cares are thine; 
I live in triumph, Lord, for thou 

Hast made thy triumph mine. 

And when it seems no chance or change 

From grief can set me free, 
Hope finds its strength in helplessness, 

And, trusting, waits on thee. 

Man's weakness, waiting upon God, 

Its end can never miss; 
For men on earth no work can find 

More angel-like than this. 

Eide on, ride on triumphantly, 
Thou glorious will! ride on! 

Faith's pilgrim sons behind thee take 
The road that thou hast gone. 

He always wins who sides with God ; 

To him no chance is lost; 
God's will is sweetest to him when 

It triumphs at his cost. 

Ill that he blesses is our good, 

And unblest good is ill; 
And all is right that seems most wrong, 

If it be his sweet will." 



210 



SERMON& 



TIL 

CHRIST'S IDEAL OF HIS CHURCH 

Text: "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also 
loved the Church and gave himself for it; tliat he might sanctify 
and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word; that he 
might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, 
or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and 
without blemi$h. v — Ephesians v, 25-27. 

There is no relation upon the earth which is 
so tender and so endearing as the conjugal. It is 
everywhere spoken of in this form in the Word of 
God. All unfaithfulness in it is denounced in 
strongest terms, and the present and eternal dis- 
pleasure of God is threatened against all who pre- 
sume to violate its sanctity. It follows that all who 
think or speak lightly and indifferently of this rela- 
tion, or who are doing any thing that would tend 
to weaken its bonds, or to dissolve them upon slight, 
insufficient, or unscriptural grounds, are arraying 
themselves against the eternal principles of God's 
law, and exposing themselves to his " indignation 
and wrath/' 

Often, in chiding his ancient Church, God chose 
this relation as the fittest symbol or emblem of 
the relation which exists between him and his 
people. For instance, his people are said to be 



CHRIST'S IDEAL OF HIS CHUBCB. 



211 



"married" to him; he is their "husband," they are 
his " spouse," his " bride." Unfaithfulness to him, 
therefore, is branded as " whoredom," or " adultery," 
while fidelity to him secures his sovereign care, 
protection, and love. The same emblem is employed 
in the New Testament writings. The Church is 
here spoken of as a "chaste virgin, espoused to 
Christ;" as "the bride, the Lamb's wife," who is 
now preparing herself for her Lord, and whose nup- 
tials will be fully and formally celebrated in the 
last day. 

In the text the apostle gives us one of those 
pleasant surprises so common in his letters. He is 
urging upon the members of the Ephesian Church 
the duty of fidelity in all the various relations of 
life, as of husbands and wives, parents and children, 
and masters and servants. And, right in the midst 
of these ethical teachings, he introduces the won- 
derful example of Christ in his love for his Church, 
and his wonderful designs concerning it. "Hus- 
bands love your wives, even as Christ also loved 
the Church." Thus he would present before us 
both the model and the measure of the love which 
the husband should have to his wife, while, in a 
few brief lines, he shows to us Christ's ideal of his 
Church, and how he designs that ideal shall be 
realized. 

I. Christ's Ideal of his Church. 

From eternity Christ had an ideal of what his 

Church should be. Just as the sculptor, before he 

touches the marble block with his chisel, has an 

19 



212 



SERMONS. 



ideal of the form of beauty he would bring forth 
from it ; or as the painter, before the canvas is 
touched by pencil or brush, has an ideal of the pic- 
ture or portrait he would paint; or as the architect 
has the ideal of his building in his mind before a 
line is drawn or a stroke of work is done ; or as the 
inventor sees how such an invention, which is strug- 
gling for birth in his brain, will be of use to the 
world ere he makes his models; so Christ, ere he 
began the work of redemption, saw what he would 
do and what he could make of fallen, degraded, 
depraved, and lost men and women. 

That this is no fanciful idea will appear when 
we quote from the Word of the Lord the truths 
which bear upon this question : " Whom he did fore- 
know he also did predestinate to be conformed to the 
image of his Son." (Romans viii, 28.) "But we are 
bound to give thanks always to God for you, breth- 
ren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from 
the beginning chosen you to salvation, through 
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." 
(2 Thessalonians ii, 13.) "Who hath saved us and 
called us with an holy calling, not according to our 
works, but according to his own purpose and grace 
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world 
began." (2 Timothy i, 9.) "According as he hath 
chosen us in him, before the foundation of the 
world, that we should be holy and without blame 
before him in love." (Ephesians i, 4.) " Elect, ac- 
cording to the foreknowledge of God the Father, 
through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience 



CHRIST'S IDEAL OF HIS CHURCH 213 



and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." (1 
Peter i, 2.) Here, then, we have presented before 
us clearly what was the ideal in the mind of the 
ever blessed Trinity before the great work of re- 
demption was actually begun. This, too, was accord- 
ing to the oath which he made with Abraham. 
"The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, 
that he would grant unto us that we being delivered 
out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him 
without fear in holiness and righteousness all the 
days of our life." (Luke i, 73-5.) Here, then, is 
the ideal. 

1. That it should be a "glorious Church;" that 
is, a Church invested and crowned with his own 
glory. This is what he declared in his sacerdotal 
prayer: "And the glory which thou gavest me I 
have given them," It is because of this that " the 
king's daughter is all glorious within." So Isaiah 
foresaw the Church would be in the future " an 
eternal excellency, the joy of many generations." 
"The Lord shall be to thee an everlasting light, 
and thy God thy glory." " Thou shalt also be a 
crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal 
diadem in the hand of thy God." So this Church 
was designed to be on earth, and so, with infinitely 
more glory, it will be in heaven. It is wonderful 
to see what a transformation is contemplated here. 
Look at the former condition of his Church implied 
in the language here employed — spotted, wrinkled, 
impure, unholy, blameworthy, or condemned. And 
yet out of such material was to come this glorious 



214 



SERMONS. 



Church. Just as the paper-mill gathers from every 
quarter filthy rags, and after passing them through 
various processes brings out the pure, spotless, white 
paper on which we write, so Christ takes all these 
unholy, filthy, wrinkled souls and cleanses and sanc- 
tifies and glorifies them. No wonder that the rev- 
elator stood astonished when he saw the countless 
multitudes before the throne and wondered what 
they were and whence they came. And his aston- 
ishment must have been increased when he learned 
that they had been sinners, guilty, depraved, and 
defiled, but that their robes had been " washed and 
made white in the blood of the Lamb." And so 
^hen the marriage of the Lamb is come, to his bride, 
the Church, will be given that " she shall be arrayed 
in fine linen, clean and white, [or bright — see mar- 
gin] for the fine linen is [represents] the righteous- 
ness of saints." 

2. So in the text, " Not having spot, or wrinkle, 
or any such thing, but that it should be holy and 
without blemish." This glory of the Church was 
not only to be seen in its purity, but also in its 
power. Holiness is power. Beauty and strength 
are inseparably associated in the character of the 
Church. When she " looks forth as the morning, 
fair as the moon, and clear as the sun," then is she 
" terrible to her enemies as an army with banners." 
This is the power she has to subdue her enemies 
and to conquer this world for Christ. So says the 
prophet Isaiah, " When the Lord shall have washed 
away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall 



CUBIST'S IDEAL OF HIS CHURCH. 



215 



have purged the blood of J erusalem from the midst 
thereof/ by the spirit of burning, and by the spirit 
of judgment. And the Lord will create upon every 
dwelling-place of Mount Zion, and upon her assem- 
blies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of 
a flaming fire by night : for upon all the glory there 
shall be a defense" 

3. It is also the glory of unity. Holiness is the 
everlasting bond uniting all God's saints, binding 
all things in the heavens and in the earth together. 
Holiness never divides, never sows dissensions, has 
in it no element of disintegration. Just in propor- 
tion as this grand ideal of the Church's purity is 
realized, so will its unity be made to appear. 
Christ's prayer for his people, that they all might 
be one, was based upon the idea that they might be 
"sanctified through the truth." O, the Church of 
the future will not only be holy, but it will be 
united. " There shall be one fold and one Shep- 
herd." How blessed it will be when denomina- 
tional distinctions, strifes, bickerings, and heart- 
burnings shall all be done away, and all shall be 
united in one body upon the basis of God's Word, 
and cemented together by perfect love! 

4. This is, further, the glory of spirituality. 
"How shall not the ministration of the Spirit," 
through whose almighty agency these grand results 
would be realized, "be rather glorious." And so, 
"we all beholding as with open face in a glass the 
glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, 
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the 



216 



SERMONS. 



Lord." The glory is not in the outward, visible 
agencies and appliances ; not in rites and ceremo- 
nials, however grand and gorgeous they may be. 
But it is in spirituality, in moral purity, moral qual- 
ities, righteousness, holiness. A sanctified Church 
is a spiritual Church, and the glory of the Divine 
Christ dwells upon it for evermore. 

II. But what has Christ done for the pur- 
pose of realizing this, his own, ideal of his Church? 

The apostle dwells upon the answer to this ques- 
tion, manifestly, with holy delight. In the first 
place, he says, " Christ loved the Church" It was 
this love that led him to purpose to save it, to 
sanctify and cleanse it, from the eternity of the past. 
This love brought him from the throne, led him to 
assume our human nature, sustained him through all 
the scenes of poverty, sorrow, trial, ignominy, suf- 
fering and death which he endured in redeeming it. 
This is an everlasting, unchangeable, self-sacrificing 
love. There is no language which can describe 
this love. 

" Stronger his love than death or hell ; 

Its riches are unsearchable; 
The first-born sons of light 

Desire in vain its depths to see; 

They can not reach the mystery, 
The length, the breadth, the height." 

And he loves his people still. His people are 
"graven on his hands; their walls are continually 
before him." " Whosoever toucheth them touches 
the apple of his eye." "In his love and in his 
pity he has borne them and carried them all the 



CHRIST'S IDEAL OF HIS CHURCH 



217 



days of old." No wonder that the Church on earth 
and in heaven unite to sing, "Unto him that loved 
us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood." 

But the manner in which this love was mani- 
fested is equally wonderful. " He gave himself for 
it" How often do the inspired writers dwell upon 
this amazing fact ! They look at it over and over, try 
to illustrate it, to tell of it, exhaust the vocabulary 
of earth in endeavoring to describe it ; but after all, 
conscious of their inability so to do, they simply 
exclaim, " Herein is love : not that we loved God ; 
but that he first loved us, and sent his Son to be 
the propitiation for our sins." So when the great 
apostle to the Gentiles would express the secret and 
the source of the wonderful life which he lived, he 
says : "The life which I now live in the flesh I live 
by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, 
and gave himself for me." O, it was not j^is doc- 
trine, not his miracles, not his holy life; but him- 
self, his life, his heart's blood ! He could not have 
given any thing richer, greater, better, or more 
costly. He gave himself. " Greater love hath no 
man than this, that a man lay down his life for his 
friends;" "but God commendeth his love toward 
us, in that while we were yet sinners [ungodly, ene- 
mies,] Christ died for us." Here is the foundation 
of all — love, eternal love, prompting the Son of 
God, the Son of man, to give himself for us. 

We are also called upon here to look at the 
agencies which he employs in effecting his design. 
The first is symbolical, "the washing of water;" 



218 SERMONS. 

the second is "the Word." The one is referred to 
under the symbol of baptism; the other is the 
Word of the Lord. Baptism, by whatever mode 
administered, is the symbol of purity. This is its 
signification to the believer and the beholder. The 
literal rendering is, " By the laver of the water." 
So it is used by the apostle in his letter to Titus : 
" By the washing [the laver] of regeneration." This 
is the " outward and visible sign of the inward and 
invisible grace." The outward sign is nothing 
worth, unless accompanied by faith in the Word, 
and in the purifying power of the Holy Spirit. 
The Word is the visible instrumentality of our pu- 
rification and sanctification. Hence our Savior said 
to his disciples, " Now ye are clean, through the 
word which I have spoken to you." And again, 
" Sanctify them through thy truth ; thy word is 
truth." So Peter speaks of " purifying the soul in 
obeying the truth." 

It is in this Word that Christ's ideal of his 
Church is presented before us, that the infinite pro- 
visions of his grace are made known, and that the 
"exceeding great and precious promises" are re- 
corded. Here we see the fountain cf blood opened 
right before our wondering eyes, and all those divine 
agencies are presented before us which infinite love 
employs. O, if we read, if we studied, our Bibles 
more under the illumination of the Holy Spirit, 
how clearly our privilege would be revealed unto 
us! How soon we would be led into the fullness 
of Christ's salvation ! But we are not to rest in the 



CHRIST'S IDEAL OF HIS CHURCH. 



219 



outward sign or symbol of baptism, by whomsoever 
administered, or whatsoever mode may be employed. 
More than this is needed; more, also, than merely 
reading and endeavoring to understand the meaning 
of the Word ; more than a mere historical faith in 
Christ. All these things are important in their 
place, as means, as agencies; but it is the blood 
which cleanseth from all sin, it is the Spirit who 
alone can sanctify the soul. These are divine and 
effective agencies, and never fail to accomplish this 
work where the soul is in condition to receive and 
enjoy them. Here, then, is presented the great ideal 
of the Divine Master ; here are the agencies he em- 
ploys to realize it — the blood, the Spirit, the puri- 
fying w r aters or laver of baptism, and the Divine, 
Eternal Word of God. 

Can this ideal be realized? Will it ever be? 
Is Christ able thus to sanctify and cleanse the 
Church ? Will he be able, at last, to " present it to 
himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or 
wrinkle, or any such thing?" To say that he can 
not do this would be to admit that his work is a 
failure. And to say that he will not do it, after all 
this immense outlay of suffering and sacrifice, is 
contrary to his express utterances, his promise, and 
his oath, O, he can take the wretched, the ruined, 
and the lost, and make them sons and heirs of God! 
He can take the impure, unholy, and defiled, and 
make them "spotless, and without blemish." And 
he will do it. He is doing it from day to day. 

This thought of the blessed Christ realizing his 



220 



SERMONS 



own ideal finds an apt, and, as we think, beautiful 
illustration in the familiar story of Michael Angelo 
and " the angel in the block." It is said that while 
he was walking one day with some friends through an 
obscure street in the city of Florence, he discovered 
a block of fine marble, lying neglected in a yard, and 
half buried in rubbish and dirt. Regardless of his 
holiday attire, he at once set to work to clear it from 
its filth, and lift it up from the mire in which it was 
imbedded. His companions asked him, in astonish- 
ment, "What are you doiug?" "OP he replied, 
"there's an angel in the stone, and I must get it 
out." He had it removed to his studio, and with 
patient toil, with mallet and chisel, he brought the 
angel out. There are several points upon which we 
may dwell with interest here. As soon as he saw 
the block of marble the ideal of how an angel might 
be wrought out from it was present to his active 
mind and his almost inspired genius. So when the 
Lord Jesus Christ saw the wreck and the ruin of our 
race, he saw the possibilities of making, even from 
such material, purified and glorified souls. Again, 
the condition in which Angelo found the block formed 
no barrier to his wisdom and skill in producing his 
ideal. So, no matter how deep our degradation, 
hoAV great the masses of filth and corruption which 
are upon our hearts, how stained and polluted we 
are, there is in the Divine Christ the wisdom, the 
skill, and the power by which this wonderful trans- 
formation may be wrought out. Then, too, the 
process was one that required rude blows and sharp 



CHRIST'S IDEAL OF HIS CHURCH. 



221 



cuttings of the mallet and the chisel. If the marble 
had been sensitive, and endowed with the faculty 
of speech, it might have said : i( O, I can not stand 
this; it is too severe. I will take myself out of 
your hands. I will not submit to such treatment!" 

So the blessed Christ not only employs the out- 
ward agencies referred to, and the mighty power of 
his blood and his Spirit, but also sharp trials, afflic- 
tions, losses, and crosses. And we often say " This 
is more than I can bear," as the iron goes into our 
soul, as the agonizing pains rack our body, or the 
burning fever consumes it, or the bereaving stroke 
falls upon the beloved of our hearts and homes, 
and the coffin-lid goes down upon the fair, beauti- 
ful face that we had loved so much and so long. 
And sometimes we cry : " O Father, stay thy hand !" 
" Holy Father ! let this cup pass from me." Still 
the hand is not stayed ; still the cup is pressed to 
our parched and feverish lips. Amid the provi- 
dential darkness which surrounds us we fail to dis- 
cover the wise design, to see the ideal after which 
the Master works. But he sees it all the time. 
And not one stroke too many will be inflicted ; not 
one drop or dreg too many will be put into the 
bitter cup. Suppose, further, that after the angel- 
form had been brought out of the block it could have 
spoken, might it not have said to the passers-by, as 
they admired its beauty: " Do not think I made 
myself what I am. I was nothing but a rough 
block, covered all over with rubbish and filth, when 
Angelo saw me, and he has made me all that I am." 



222 



SERMONS. 



So with redeemed and glorified souls on earth and 
in heaven. They have nothing of which to boast 
if they are sanctified and cleansed, nor if they are 
presented before the Master at length, " without 
spot, or wrinkle, or blemish." They can say to the 
world, or to an admiring universe, " Not unto us ; 
not unto us." We were guilty, condemned, perish- 
ing; full of depravity, defilement, corruption, and 
sin; but Jesus sought us out, rescued, pardoned, jus- 
tified, sanctified, and washed us in his blood, and 
made us all we are. " Unto him that loved us, 
and washed us from our sins in his own blood, be 
glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." 

" 'Tis the Master who holds the mallet, 

And day by day 
He is chipping whatever environs 

The form away, 
Which under his skillful cutting 

He means shall be 
Brought silently out to beauty, 

Of such degree 
Of faultless and full perfection, 

That angel eyes 
Shall look on his finished labor 

With new surprise, 
That even his boundless patience 

Could grave his own 
Features upon such fractured 

And stubborn stone. 

'Tis the Master who holds the chisel; 

He knows just where 
The edge should be driven sharpest 

To fashion there 
The semblance that he is carving; 

Nor will he let 



CHRIST S IDEAL OF HIS CHURCH. 223 



One delicate stroke too many, 
Or few, be set 

On forehead or cheek, where only- 
He sees how all 

Is tending — and w T here the hardest 
The blow should fall 

"Which crumbles away whatever 
Superfluous line 

Would hinder his hand from making 
The work divine. 

With tools of thy choosing, Master, 

We pray thee, then, 
Strike just as thou wilt, as often, 

And w T hen, and wiiere, 
The vehement stroke is needed; 

I will not mind, 
If only thy chipping chisel 

Shall leave behind 
Such marks of thy wondrous w T orking 

• And loving skill, 
Clear-carven on aspect, stature, 

And face, and will, 
When discipline's ends are over, 

Have all-sufficed 
To mould me into the likeness 

And form of Christ." 

If we would only let the Divine Christ have his 
own way with us, what forms of beauty he would 
make out of our ruined and disordered souls! But 
often by our pride, our rebellion, our worldliness, 
and our indifference we hinder him, we mar his 
workmanship, and sometimes deface and well-nigh 
spoil it. What a wonder that he does not become 
discouraged with us and cast us away as worthless 
things ! AVe must put ourselves into his hands. AVe 
must lie passive there if his own ideal is accom- 
plished in us. Let it be borne in mind here further 



224 



SERMONS. 



that while the sanctification and the cleansing of 
water by the Word may be complete in their char- 
acter by faith in an instant, the process of preparing 
to present us before him a glorious Church, spotless, 
unwrinkled, and unblemished, is an on-going one. 
All Christians, of every grade and character, are in 
the process of " being saved." From the moment 
when we believe in Christ, through every successive 
period of our believing and obedient lives, these 
processes of saving grace are going on. Under the 
power of the blood and under the sovereign trans- 
forming power of the Holy Spirit, the work is pro- 
gressing. There are crisis periods in it, when our 
faith grasps the promise and appropriates the blood, 
and we know more fully in an instant than we had 
known for years its power to cleanse. But still, as 
a rule, the work goes on gradually. We are losing 
the dross; the tin is being consumed; one grace 
after another is being developed, rounded off, per- 
fected, and all is moving forward towards the com- 
plete realization of the grand ideal. 

Were you to go into the studio of the sculptor 
or painter when his work was only in a half or 
partially finished condition, you would say, perhaps, 
"That doesn't look much like an angel; that is 
a poor likeness of my friend, or that is a poor- 
looking landscape." But the artist would say, 
"Wait until the work is finished, then you can 
better judge of its character." So he works on, and 
every cut of the chisel, every touch of the brush, 
is bringing out more clearly and fully the beautiful 



CHRIST'S IDEAL OF HIS CHURCH 225 



ideal in the marble or on the canvas. So it is with 
Christians in this world. They are not yet per- 
fected; sanctified, cleansed, they may be, but there 
are many frailties, weaknesses, imperfections in body 
and in mind, and often they fail to represent the 
work which is actually going on in them. The 
keen but prejudiced gaze of the world is upon them, 
and they sharply criticise and ludicrously caricature 
their faults and failings; but let them wait. The 
work is not finished yet. The ideal of the Master 
is not fully realized yet. Wait a little while. 

When, then, will this grand ideal be fully realized? 

As we have seen, there is a sense in which even 
now and here, Christ may say to his bride, " Thou 
art all fair, my love." Every soul that is now 
washed in his blood and robed in the beautiful, 
spotless robes of his righteousness, appears thus in 
his sight. He sees the work which is going on. He 
looks into the soul, and "smiles to see his image 
there." He knows what is voluntary in our char- 
acter and actions, and what is involuntary. His 
disciples, when he was upon the earth with them, 
often manifested great weaknesses, ignorance of his 
character and mission, narrow views of his kingdom, 
a mixture of Judaism and legalism, and yet how he 
loved them. How he speaks of them to the Father 
in his intercessory prayer : " Having loved his own 
that were in the world, he loved them unto the end." 
It is so now. " He will not break the bruised reed nor 
quench the smoking flax." He does not despise a little 
faith, a little love, a little effort in his service. And 



226 



SERMONS. 



if we are putting ourselves into his mighty hand 
he will accomplish his work in us. "He who has 
begun a good work in you will perform [finish, 
perfect] it until the day of Jesus Christ." 

But the time is hastening on in the case of every 
individual Christian and of the whole Church of 
God when this work will be finished or perfected. 
The end draweth nigh. Towards it the saints of all 
the ages .have been looking, and Christ's people 
now are looking with eager, earnest gaze. It is the 
period of his coming again with all his mighty 
angels in glory to be admired by all his saints. So 
Paul says, " When Christ, who is your life, shall 
appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory" 
When he prayed for the Thessalonians that they 
might be "sanctified wholly," he adds, "and your 
whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blame- 
less unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
So he writes to the Corinthians, " Waiting for the 
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also 
confirm you unto the end, 'that ye may be blame- 
less in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." So he 
prays again that the Thessalonians may " abound in 
love toward one another, and toward all men. To 
the end he may stablish your hearts unblamable in 
holiness before God, even our Father, at the com- 
ing of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints." 
This, then, is the glorious era in which this ideal 
will be fully realized. 

Then, when this corruptible body shall have put 
on incorruption and immortality, when the soul 



CHRIST'S IDEAL OF HIS CHURCH 227 



shall be fully delivered from all the effects of sin, 
and soul and body shall bear his glorious image; 
when there will be a crown on every brow, a harp 
in every hand, with palms of victory and triumph; 
when w T hite-robed, shining in the brightness of spot- 
less purity, and the luster and beauty of finished 
holiness, with no tear-drop to dim the eye, no sor- 
row to cloud the brow, no fear of pain or want or 
death ; when " shining forth as the sun in the king- 
dom of his Father," then will Christ "see of the 
travail of his soul and be satisfied:" then the work 
of redemption will be complete, then the whole 
ransomed and glorified Church will be with its Lord 
and Head forever and ever. 

This great work is now going forward from day 
to day. Every day, every hour, mayhap every 
moment, some ransomed soul is glorified, taken up 
to the throne to await the celebration of the nuptials 
of the Bridegroom and his bride. So Alford sings : 

"Ten thousand times ten thousand, 

In sparkling raiment bright, 
The armies of the ransomed saints 

Throng up the steeps of light; 
'Tis finished, all is finished, 

Their fight with death and sin; 
Fling open wide the golden gates, 

And let the victors in.'' 

Shall we be among that glorious company? Shall 
we sing their songs of everlasting joy? We may be, 
every one of us may be. All the provisions are for 
us who believe; all the promises are for us. The 

fountain of blood is open to us now. The Eternal 

20 



228 



SERMONS. 



Spirit is always near. Let us come into this Church 
of Christ, this communion of saints now.' Let us 
now learn the new song. Let us now be busied, 
" washing our robes and making them white in the 
•blood of the Lamb." O then we shall be with the 
glorious number, and, better than all this, we shall 
be with Jesus where he is and see him as he* is 
for evermore! Amen and Amen. 

£c Now unto him that is able to keep you from 
falling and to present you faultless before the pres- 
ence of his glory with exceeding joy; to the only 
wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, domin- 
ion and power, both now and ever, Amen." 



THE RECEIPT FOR HOLINESS. 



229 



XIII. 

- THE RECEIPT FOE, HOLINESS. 

Text : " Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed 
unto sm, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" — 
Eomans vi, 11. 

This is what Dr. Chalmers called," the receipt for 
holiness." The command which it contains is a very- 
remarkable one ; for it is a command, the language 
used being in the imperative mood. It is not ad- 
visory, nor hortatory, nor promissory, but mandatory. 
But it is not only the form in which the word is 
used which arrests our attention, but the meaning 
and force of the ,vord itself. " Reckon " has several 
meanings : " To cast up, or count ; to esteem, repute, 
and number; to think with one's self, and to con- 
clude, collect, and gather, as by reason and argument." 
There is a twofold process, the mathematical and the 
logical. The latter is evidently the meaning here. 

This use of the word in reference to the experi- . 
ence of justifying and sanctifying grace, and the 
glory which is to be revealed, is peculiarly Pauline, 
none of the other New Testament writers making 
use of it in these forms. The mind of Paul was 
more forensic and logical in its cast than was that 
of Peter, James, or John ; and hence he more fre- 



230 



SERMONS. 



quently. used forensic terms, such as "justification," 
"the law," and the word in the text. His first 
marked use of it is where he inquires, On what 
ground was Abraham "justified" — of works or of 
faith? And quoting from Genesis xv, 6, where it 
is said, "Abraham believed God, and it was .counted 
[the same word as reckoned] to him for righteous- 
ness," he says (Romans iv, 4) : " To him that 
worketh the reward is not reckoned of grace, but 
of debt ; but to him that worketh not, but believeth 
on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is 
counted [or reckoned] unto him for righteousness." 
So Abraham was not justified because he was cir- 
cumcised ; but his circumcision was a sign and seal 
of " the righteousness of faith." Another instance 
of its use is in my text; and the next is where he 
had been looking at the sufferings of the present 
time, taking the admeasurement, the gauge, of hu- 
man suffering, and then comparing it with the glory 
which is to be revealed. And the conclusion to 
which he arrived was that these "sufferings were 
not worthy to be compared with the glory which 
shall be revealed in us." 

Let us now turn our attention to the text and notice 
I. The basis of this reckoning. 
All reckoning, whether mathematical or logical, 
must have a basis, real or supposed. We can 
reach no results, unless there are furnished to us 
factors, propositions, figures, or premises. These 
being given or assumed, we can proceed to reason, 
to count, to argue, and conclude. 



THE RECEIPT FOR HOLINESS. 231 



Now, the command given in the text is not an 
unreasonable one , for it refers directly to broad and 
ample bases upon which the mind may act, and 
from which it may reach the conclusions referred to. 
But these bases are not found in the character of 
condition of the reckoner, but in somewhat without 
and beyond himself. 

1. We are not required to regard ourselves, or to 
be, as being, what, in reality, we are not. In other 
words, we are not required to believe that we are 
pardoned, or justified, in order to be justified; or to 
believe that we are holy in order to be holy. This 
would be to require of us to believe what is false, 
and what we know to be false. For the mind to 
reckon in that way would argue self-deception, or 
lunacy. It would be as if a prisoner, lodged in a 
gloomy cell, and loaded with chains, should be free 
because he imagines himself to be so, or dreams 
that he is; or as if the sick man should be well 
because he has had imaginings or dreams of health ; 
or for the beggared lunatic to be a king, seated 
upon a throne, because in his wild delirium he-con- 
ceives such to be the facts in his case. So no man 
is justified, and the guilt and condemnation of his 
sins removed, because he fancies it to be so ; and 
no sinner becomes a saint by merely imagining 
himself to be one. 

2. Nor is the basis of this reckoning found in 
ourselves, or in our deeds. It is true, our character 
and condition are to be taken into the account — not 
as a basal fact why we may a reckon ourselves to be 



232 



SERMONS. 



dead unto sin and alive unto God;" but as arguing 
the necessity for some basis upon which we may 
thus reckon ourselves to be. If there were not sin 
in us, and its consequent death in the soul, there 
w T ould exist no necessity for us to look around for 
some way by w T hich we might be rid of sin and 
made alive unto God. 

Nor is it meant that we should regard our sin- 
fulness and this fearful spiritual death which is 
upon us in a light and trivial manner, as if they 
were matters of indifference and unconcern. Our 
own condition of sin, condemnation, guilt, and, 
being under the wrath of God as sinners, can not 
be too clearly seen or too deeply felt. Likewise 
our condition of sinful tendencies, the pravity and 
corruption of our nature and our inbred sin, can not 
be regarded by us in too strong a light, and as con- 
stituting a necessity too deep and tremendous for 
our purification. We shall never be made holy by 
thinking lightly of our sins, by calling them by 
soft, polite, and deceptive names, or treating them 
as if they were of no account. No, the lancet of 
God's eternal truth must go down deep into the 
gangrene of the soul before it can be cured. The 
wound must be probed, however painful the process, 
that the obstruction may be removed and the ex- 
travasated blood cease its flow. But depend upon 
it, you will never be made holy, because you imag- 
ine you are not as bad as you seem to be, or as 
God's Word declares that you are. 

3. The basis of this reckoning is twofold: first, 



THE RECEIPT FOR HOLINESS. 233 



what Christ has done for us; and, secondly, what he 
has promised to us. It is "through Jesus Christ 
our Lord." Now, when we come to the questions, 
"How are we to be justified? and how are we to be 
made holy?" what we are, or what we have done, or 
can do, is not to be taken into the account. Neither 
of these things is a factor in the calculation. When 
I reckon upon these bases I conclude myself a slave 
of sin, guilty and condemned, and the wrath of God 
abides upon me, with no hope of deliverance from 
my sins or their consequences. It is very different, 
however, when we come to reckon on the basis of 
what Christ has done for us and what he has prom- 
ised to us. 

To illustrate this: Suppose that I have been 
greatly in debt, owing an amount which I can never 
pay, and for which I might justly be arrested and 
brought under the dominion of the law and its pen- 
alties; my dwelling upon that fact and groaning 
under that burden would only cause my brain to 
reel and my heart to break. But if I have a friend 
who in his kindness steps in and pays all my debt 
and says to me : "All I require of you is to believe 
that I have paid your debt, and cordially to accept 
my intervention in your behalf;" then all I have to 
do, after complying with these simplest of condi- 
tions, would be to rise up a free man and go forth 
on my way rejoicing. Or, again, supposing that I 
have violated the laws of my country, and am 
doomed to imprisonment or death if I were to dwell 
upon or reckon upon my condition from what I 



234 



SERMONS. 



have done or what I have deserved, I might sink 
down into despair at the fearful character of my 
crime and the terrible nature of its punishment. 
But if one who had the authority or the power 
should interpose for me, and in some way, alike 
honorable to the law and the law-maker, obtain for 
me a full pardon of my crime and full immunity 
from its punishment on the simple condition that I 
should accept it and quit my dungeon and live 
henceforth a better man, I could drop my chains 
and quit my dungeon and go forth free in the sight 
of the law and acquitted from all its penalties. 

Here, then, we see the basis on which we are to 
reckon, not on account of what we are, or what we 
have done, but on tvhat another has done for us. 
Sin is a debt to the divine law and to divine justice 
for which we might be cast into prison until "the 
uttermost farthing is paid." But Christ has come 
in and provisionally paid the whole debt. He has 
come in and obtained a full pardon and a perfect 
holiness, and all I have to do, and all I can do, is 
to accept the one and the other. And when I 
accept them I am, forensically and actually, "dead 
to sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our 
Lord." Here, then, is the one great factor in the 
reckoning which I am commanded to make. And 
of its amplitude, its all-sufficiency and its infinity, 
there can be no doubt. 

The language employed to tell us of these things 
exhausts the vocabulary of earth in these directions. 
It is for "the world," "for the whole world," "for 



THE RECEIPT FOR HOLINESS. 



235 



all," for "every man" and for "whosoever will." 
It is, also, "to the uttermost," "it is from all sin," 
from "all unrighteousness," "for sin and for all 
uncleanness ;" it is for every "spot and wrinkle and 
every such thing ;" it is that we may " be preserved 
blameless until the coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ" — not only delivered from guilt, condemna- 
tion, wrath, death, but " cleansed," " purified," " sanc- 
tified," " blood-washed f it is " perfected holiness ;" 
it is "the fullness," it is "all the fullness of God." 
And as to its duration, it is said, " He has perfected 
forever them that are sanctified." " He has obtained 
eternal redemption for us." "He is the author of 
eternal salvation to all that obey him." I know of 
no basis of reckoning in the universe so ample, so 
satisfactory, and so substantial as this. 

Bat this does not stand alone. There is not 
only the provision, there is also the promise, furnish- 
ing us with another factor in our reckoning. And 
the latter is in entire harmony and exactly tallies 
with the former. They are correlated by ties indis- 
soluble, and bound together with inseverable bonds. 
Hence we see that what he has conditionally pro- 
vided for all men and for all sin he has conditionally 
promised to all. So that I may justly reckon or 
conclude that I am included in both the provision 
and the promise. For if the provision was "for 
all" for " every man," then I reckon it was for me. 
If it was made for all sin, and is to the uttermost, 
then it is all-sufficient for my sins and guilt and the 
pravity of my nature. And if the promise is to 



236 



SERMONS, 



" any man/ , to a every one," to " whosoever will," 
then it embraces me; and if it offers life, pardon, 
salvation, purity, holiness, and heaven to all, I may 
assuredly embrace it. 

There is another, and it is a blessed thought 
here, and that is, that all these provisions and prom- 
ises are available for me now. No matter how mul- 
tiplied or aggravated my sins may be, if now I 
comply with the conditions which are of the most 
simple character, I may be, I shall be, saved; and 
every moment of my future being I may reckon 
myself saved upon the same basis. I have not to 
wait to make myself better. I have not to do any 
thing towards meriting my salvation; all I have to 
do is to reckon myself dead to sin and to live 
accordingly. 

Here, then, we see on the debit side our sins 
and guilt and condemnation and impurity and prav- 
ity. They are all down; they are all before God; 
and, so far as we can bear the sight and the con- 
viction, we should see them all and feel them all. 
But, if I were to look only here, and reckon only 
on this basis, my conclusion would be that I am 
endlessly damned. But I look over on the credit 
side, and I see placed there, " through Jesus Christ 
our Lord," an infinite sacrifice, blood of priceless 
value, merit that knows no bound. And as by 
faith I look upon that side with wondering eyes, 
I cry out, "My debt is paid, my soul is free, and 
I am justified." And when, subsequently to this, 
by the light of the Divine Spirit, I am led to see 



THE RECEIPT FOR HOLINESS. 237 



my want of conformity to God's law, my sinful 
tendencies, the abyss of my corruptions, my inbred 
sin, and I sigh and cry for deliverance, then on the 
basis of the provision and the promise, I can, I do, 
reckon that the blood cleanseth me from all sin, and 
that I am " saved to the uttermost." 

II. The Kesults of this Keckonikg. 

1. An actual death to sin and its consequences. 
Hence it is said, " Sin shall no more have dominion 
over you." " There is, therefore, now no condem- 
nation to them which are in Christ Jesus." "We 
are saved from wrath through him." " Sin no more 
reigns in our mortal body, that it should be obeyed 
in the affections and lusts thereof." "He that is 
born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed 
remaineth in him and he can not sin, because he is 
born of God." "The old man is crucified with 
Christ that the body of sin might be destroyed, that 
henceforth we should not serve sin." In all these 
respects the Christian is as dead to sin as if he had 
never sinned, so effectually are his sins blotted out, 
so thoroughly is he saved. The love of sin is de- 
stroyed, the power of sin is broken, the presence of 
sin is hated. " Old things are passed away ; behold 
all things are become new." This is the condition 
of every justified believer. 

But in the clearer, fuller reckoning of the sanc- 
tified believer, he experiences a death, not only to 
outward and actual sin, but also to inward and 
inherent corruption. Anger, pride, love of the world, 
selfishness, and unbelief are all gone, and the puri- 



238 



SERMONS. 



fied soul is no more conscious of their presence. 
Not only so, there is also a death to the liabilities, 
or consequences of sin. They are " saved from 
wrath through him." " They shall not perish." 
" The worm that dieth not " and " the fire un- 
quenchable " are not for them. " Over such the sec- 
ond death has no power; but they shall be priests 
of God and of Christ." 

In preparing this sermon, and analyzing care- 
fully every word of the text, I have been struck 
with the meaning of the word " indeed." It rep- 
resents the little Greek word, [iev> which signifies 
" truly, really, in reality," as well as " indeed." 
Now, it is to be remembered that this language is 
addressed to Christians, and it is Christians who are 
exhorted to reckon themselves " dead indeed unto sin." 
If you will read the sixth verse, you will see there 
that the apostle declares " our old man," the sinful 
nature, "is crucified with him" — that is, Christ; 
" that the body of sin might be destroyed, that hence- 
forth we should not serve sin." Now, crucifixion 
was not only a painful, but also a lingering death; 
and the idea seems here to be suggested that this 
sinful nature, although crucified, is not yet really 
dead. Now, the command is, " Reckon yourselves 
to be dead indeed [really, truly dead] unto sin;" 
and those addressed are to yield themselves to God 
as those that are alive from the dead. 

This form of representing the crucifixion of the 
flesh, the old man, or sinful nature, is only used in 
one other instance, Galatians v, 24. 



THE RECEIPT FOR HOLINESS. 239 



2. A real, conscious life to God. Now, it is this 
life which the provision secured, which the reckoning 
of faith has realized. " I have come/' said Jesus, 
"-that they might have life ; and have it more 
abundantly. " It was " that whosoever believeth in 
him might not perish, but have everlasting life;" 
for God gave his only-begotten Son for the world, 
"and he that believeth on him hath everlasting 
life." This was realized in the experience of the 
great apostle, when in the joy of his great heart he 
exclaimed : " I live, yet not I [that is, it is not 01 
myself], but Christ liveth in me ; and the life which 
I now live in the flesh is by faith in the Son of 
God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." 
Thus saved, the Christian lives unto God. The sin- 
ful life, the self-life, the world-life, is at an end. 
It is dead and buried, in the sight of the law and 
justice of God, and in the actual experience of the 
child of God. He recognizes the great truth that 
he is not his own, that he is bought with a price; 
and that gratitude, obligation, duty, as well as de- 
sire, lead him to glorify God in his body and in his 
spirit, which are God's. He neither " lives to him- 
self, nor dies to himself: but whether he lives, he 
lives unto the Lord; or whether he dies, he dies 
unto the Lord. Whether therefore he lives or dies, 
he is the Lord's." 

But the question arises here, " How can all this 
be by my simply reckoning it to be so?" The 
means seem to be so simple, and the results so won- 
derful and glorious, that the mind staggers at the 



240 SERMOXS. 

very thought. It is to be remembered that it is 
not our reckoning which causes or produces these 
results ; but it is our reckoning that realizes them. 
The results are already secured by the provision 
and the promise, and all that is needed to bring 
them into my soul and into my life is this believing 
reckoning. Nor am I required to understand the 
why and wherefore of the process ; but I may know 
the results in the depths of my consciousness. For 
instance, here is a galvanic battery, charged to the 
full with the electric current. I can stand by it for 
days, and even for years, and not feel or know any 
thing of its power, because I am not in condition 
so to do. But let me touch the rod or ball, and I 
at once experience the shock and the thrill. The 
power was resident in the battery all the while, and 
might have been realized by me at any time ; but 
either from ignorance or indifference to it I may 
not have done so. Nor was it my simply laying 
hold of the balls which produced the results ; but by 
doing so I siniplv realized them. So with the results 
of this reckoning : I may stand by the mighty cross 
of Jesus for years, and never feel its saving or sanc- 
tifying power, because I will not reckon upon it; 
but the very moment that by faith I grasp it I die 
unto sin, I live unto God. But I neither die unto 
sin nor live unto God by my own strength or power. 

No, no ; there comes along the line of my reck- 
oning a divine strength, a divine power, by which 
I am enabled to do both the one and the other. 
Indeed, with this strength imparted, I am as able 



THE RECEIPT FOE HOLINESS, 



241 



now to die to sin as I was formerly able to live to 
it ; and I am as able now to live unto God as I was 
formerly to live unto sin and self, the world and 
Satan. The grace imparted " through Jesus Christ 
our Lord " creates a disrelish, a distaste, aye, a pos- 
itive hatred for sin, an utter detestation and abhor- 
rence of it, so that I had rather die than commit it, 
w^hile at the same time it creates a love for holiness 
and God, which makes the soul to long for him, to 
love him, to obey his commands, and to yield ready 
submission to his will. And now it becomes as 
easy, since grace has enlarged the heart, to u run in 
the way of his commandments " as it was before to 
run in the ways of folly and sin. 

But in order to realize all this the act of reck- 
oning must be an ever-present, ever-continuous act. 
It is not done once for all the future; but it is to 
be the abiding-state, the habitude of the soul. Just 
so long as the reckoning lasts the death to sin will 
continue and the life unto God will be enjoyed. No 
man ever falls from God or falls into sin while he 
repeats this act. It is when he ceases to believe 
that he falls. And under this divine strength all 
his members are yielded as instruments of righteous- 
ness unto God and holiness, employed in God's serv- 
ice and for the honor and glory of his name. And 
this life unto God does not consist merelv in be- 
lieving and doing. These are simply related unto 
it, as means and results. But this life is peace, it 
is joy, it is hope, it is triumph, it is victory over 
death and the grave, it is glorying in the midst 



242 



SERMONS. 



of tribulations, it is communion with God; it is 
love, divine, everlasting love. And thus living 
unto God in the path of obedience and resignation 
and submission, there is a happiness and a joy un- 
known to the worldling, the sensualist, and the 
skeptic, beyond the limits of human understanding, 
and yet felt and known through all the wide realm 
of consciousness. 

Here, then, is God's method for making and 
keeping men holy. It is not the method of legal- 
ism, but the method of evangelism. It is not the 
dispensation of "do this and live;" but the dispen- 
sation of "believe and have everlasting life." The 
first seems the more natural to the human heart, 
and is the oftener tried. Indeed, it is always its 
first resort when awakened to the importance of 
salvation. Man wants to have a hand in the work 
of saving himself, that he may have whereof to 
glory. How many work on this line for many 
weary years, even, like Mr. Wesley, until they 
" prefer strangling to life !" Others are striving by 
their own skill, or their own strength, to work out 
a righteousness of their own ; to develop from ex- 
isting materials a beautiful character and a beautiful 
life. Hence the Gospel system is ignored or de- 
cried, with all creeds that embrace it and announce 
it. They want the fruitage ; but they are indifferent 
about the roots. They want a holy life ; but they 
do not want it in Christ or through Christ. And 
in this way something is accomplished ; the outward 
character and life are the better for these efforts. 



THE RECEIPT FOR HOLINESS. 243 

But how painful are the experiences of those 
pursuing this course ! . What failures ! what mis- 
givings ! what discouragements ! what almost de- 
spair ! O, cease these vain efforts, and come at 
once to Christ ! If you want the rich fruitage of a 
holy life you must strike your roots deep into the 
blood of Calvary, and into the grace of the Holy 
Ghost. Otherwise your goodness, like Ephraim\s, 
will be "as the early cloud and morning dew;" or, 
like Jonah's gourd, it will wither in a night. Sup- 
pose a person at a given point in his history makes 
up his mind, Now I will try to be a better man ; I 
will give up this habit and that sin, and will hence- 
forth strive to be right. But what is to atone for 
and to do away with all the immense accumulation, 
of his former follies, sins, and guilt? He has to 
struggle against all these things, and to struggle 
alone ; and no marvel if he becomes discouraged. 
But if he comes at once to Christ, and on the basis 
of his provision and his promise reckons himself at 
once and indeed "dead unto sin and alive unto 
God," the whole burden and bondage of a life-time of 
sin and guilt are at once removed, and he can start 
forth unencumbered and disburdened on the way of 
holiness and peace. 

And not only is all the past forgiven, and his 
whole soul thrilling and throbbing under the power 
of a new life, but he is "strengthened with might 
by the Spirit in the inner man," to work out the 
great problem of his salvation. 

This process is not only effectual in securing 



244 



SERMONS. 



the pardon of the sinner and the beginnings of his 
new life, but also in the sanctification of the believer 
and in the attainment of a higher plane in the 
divine life. The justified and regenerated believer 
will feel erelong the motions, the stirriugs of sin 
within him; that the old man, though crucified, 
is not yet " dead indeed and the revelation of this 
will bring disquiet and discomfort to the soul. And 
when he longs and groans for deliverance from these 
things the old legalistic spirit is apt to return upon 
him, and he will strive in his own strength to wrench 
out the roots of bitterness from his heart, or to wash 
out the stains of sin. He will consecrate and re- 
solve and fast and pray and struggle and groan to 
be free, and wonder why he does not succeed. 

O, if he would now just leave that weary Sinaitic 
road, and reckon himself " dead indeed unto sin, and 
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" how 
soon would the abyss of his corruptions be cleansed 
in the blood of the Lamb and his soul be trans- 
formed by the grace of the Holy Spirit! If you 
will take this evangelistic method, this only effectual 
method, you will succeed, and even now be fully 
saved; but if you continue in your legalistic efforts 
you may go on for weary years, and be no nearer 
rest and peace than now. I call upon you all now 
to reckon yourselves " dead indeed unto sin, and 
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." 



NATURAL MAN AND SPIRITUAL THINGS. 245 



XIV. 

THE NATURAL MAN AND SPIRITUAL 
THINGS. 

Text: "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the 
Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he 
know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that 
is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no 
man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may 
instruct him ? But we have the mind of Christ." — 1 Corinth- 
ians ii, 14-16. 

In order to understand or know any thing we 
must be in a condition to do so. This condition 
may be a natural faculty or an acquired ability, the 
result of study, practice, or culture. For instance, 
one who has the natural faculty or power of vision 
can discover and know of the existence and forms 
and colors and magnitudes of the objects within the 
range of his vision. Whereas a blind man is in no 
condition to understand any of them, and is not 
able to comprehend what you mean when you speak 
of those things which can only be known by sight. 
So you may place a man who has no knowledge of 
machinery in the midst of a machine-factory, and 
amid the whirl of the wheels and the noise of the 
place he can not understand what it all means, or 
what is the design of all. The simple reason is he 



246 



SEEMOSS. 



has no knowledge of the business, and, consequently, 
is in no condition to comprehend the mysterious 
movements around him. So with the untutored 
rustic in an art gallery or in a chemist's laboratory 
or in the cabinet of the geologist; these things are 
" foolishness unto, him." But to the one who is 
a skilled mechanic or machinist every object in the 
processes of manufacture, or in the movements of 
machinery, has a deep interest, because he is pre- 
pared to understand them. So with the -painter, 
the geologist, and the chemist ; the works of the great 
masters, the strata and the fossils, the fauna and the 
flora of the different periods of the earth's history, 
and the retorts and jars with their various combina- 
tions and contents will absorb their earnest atten- 
tion for days and weeks, months and years together. 

Now this great principle and fact, so readily 
acknowledged in all the various affairs pertaining 
to this world, is applied by the apostle in this pass- 
age to a knowledge, or the want of a knowledge, of 
spiritual things. Just as men do not, can not, know 
about other things without the existence of certain 
conditions, so they can not know " spiritual things" 
without the presence or possession of the conditions 
by which only they can be known. The natural — 
animal — man receiveth not, but rather rejects the 
things of the Spirit of God. To him they are "fool- 
ishness," and he can not know them because they 
are to be judged of or discerned by a man whose 
spirit has been lifted up into a spiritual condition 
by the influence and power of the Holy Ghost. 



NATURAL MAX AXD SPIRITUAL THINGS. 247 



1. This will be evident when we consider the 
character and condition of the natural or animal man. 
He is under the governance or control of the animal 
soul, and thus is in a non-receptive condition. 
When man was an unfallen being his spiritual 
nature was completely predominant. All his appe- 
tites and passions, all his desires and designs, all 
his plans and pursuits, all his intellections and affec- 
tions, were spiritual and were ever rising Godward 
and heavenward. But his fearful fall entirely re- 
versed all this order of things. The spiritual powers 
came down from the throne where they had been 
regnant, and the animal, the sensual, the earthly, 
the selfish, and even the demoniacal took their place 
and usurped authority over man. And as his spir- 
itual nature had been in alliance with God and 
angels, and all that was holy and good in the uni- 
verse, now it became in alliance with the world, 
the flesh, and the Devil, a triune foe which has 
possession and control of him. Now, then, the 
whole bent of his being is in their direction. His 
plans and pursuits, his desires and purposes, his 
hopes and fears, are all under their power. All 
that he sees or feels or knows is on this plane.* The 
value and importance of all is judged by their stand- 
ard. His "eye hath not seen, nor his ear heard, 
nor his heart conceived, what God hath prepared 
for them that love him." 

2. In this condition he not only receives not, 
but he positively rejects, the things of the Spirit of 
God. And this is not because lie has no ability or 



248 



SERMONS. 



may not have it through the provisions of redemp- 
tion to receive them if he would put himself under 
proper influences. There is such a gracious ability 
in every human soul during probation. It is not 
natural nor inherent, but it is gracious, furnished 
by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. If 
it were not for this, had he been permitted to exist, 
man would have been a raging and a damned fiend. 
But by this power he may attain to the conditions 
on which spiritual things are discerned and compre- 
hended. If he could not have this power then he 
would be irresponsible for any want of its exercise. 
But it is just because he might, if he would, but 
rejects and refuses the proffered influences and aids 
which are freely tendered to him, that he is Jield 
accountable for his rejection, and condemned for the 
willful ignorance and folly, sensuality and sin, which 
are the legitimate results. He voluntarily permits 
"the god of this world/' with whom he is in alli- 
ance, and under whose control he acts, to "blind 
his eyes, so that the light of the knowledge of the 
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ may not 
shine unto him." The light has come into this 
world; it is shining all around him, but because of 
the evil of his deeds he loves the darkness rather 
than the light. The Holy Spirit is sent forth to 
convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of 
judgment, but his influences are resisted and his 
light is quenched. And thus the only agencies by 
which spiritual things can be known are ignored 
and rejected. 



NATURAL MAN AND SPIRITUAL THINGS. 249 



Men do not know these things because they will 
not Christlieb well says, "In divine and spiritual 
things no one errs entirely without his own fault." 
And you will observe it is not said that the natural 
man does not know about God and about Christ 
and about the Bible. These things, in certain as- 
pects especially, lie level with his intellections. So 
far as the existence and perfections of God are con- 
cerned, the ethics of the Bible and an historical 
Christ, he may learn of all. But it is supernatural, 
evangelical truth, inward spiritual experiences, be- 
gotten b y the power of the Holy Ghost that he 
does not and can not, because he will not, be able 
to understand. 

He may be a thorough scientist, as Humboldt, 
Darwin, Huxley, and Tyndall; as great a philos- 
opher as Stuart Mill or Herbert Spencer. He may 
be a great anatomist or physiologist, learned in 
medicine, or in the law, in statesmanship and pol- 
itics, in literature or languages ; or he may be a great 
merchant, understanding all the laws of commerce 
or trade, or a skilled mechanic, knowing all the 
principles and powers of mechanism or machinery; 
and yet, with all these faculties and powers, he may 
know nothing of spiritual things, and be as igno- 
rant of them as the blind man is of light, or the 
deaf man of " the harmony of sweet sounds." " The 
princes of this world might judge in a matter of 
politics; the leaders in the world of literature are 
qualified to pronounce on a point of taste; the coun- 
selors of this world to weigh the amount of evi- 



250 



SERMONS. 



dence; but in matters spiritual they are as unfit to 
judge as a man without ears is to decide respecting 
harmony, or a man judging by sensation to super- 
sede the higher truth of science by an appeal to his 
own estimate of appearances."* And all this, not 
because he may not know them, but because he 
voluntarily places himself in a condition in which 
he can not know them. 

3. In consequence of the rejection of the means 
by which spiritual things may be known, they are, 
as a result, hidden from man's eyes. This may 
only be temporarily so for a shorter or longer 
period, but if persisted in it will become judicial 
and eternal. It was thus with the Jewish people 
when Christ sat weeping on the brow of Olivet over 
the impending ruin of the Holy City. He ex- 
claimed : " If thou hadst known, even thou, at least 
in this thy day, the things which belong to thy 
peace ; but now they are hid from thine eyes." And, 
again, in the fearful mission given to Isaiah, after 
his lips had been touched with the hallowed fire. 
" Go and tell this people, Hear ye, indeed, but un- 
derstand not; and see ye, indeed, but perceive not. 
Make the heart of this people fat and their ears 
heavy, and shut their eyes ; lest they see with their 
eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand w T ith 
their hearts, and convert, and be healed." And why 
was all this? They had eyes, ears, a heart, all the 
faculties of seeing, hearing, and knowing, but they 
had rejected the light, had shut their ears against 

* Robertson's Sermons. First series. 



NATURAL MAN AND SPIRITUAL THINGS. 251 

the truth, and hardened their hearts. Now the legit- 
imate consequences of their actions were coming 
upon them in the announced judgments- of God. 

In like manner the apostle says : "If our Gospel 
be hid, it is hid to them who are perishing; in whom 
the god of this world has blinded the minds of them 
which believe not." If men will not understand 
spiritual things, the time will come when they can 
not understand them. "And for this cause God 
will send them strong delusion, that they should 
believe a lie, that they all might be damned who 
believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unright- 
eousness." (2 Thessalonians ii, 11, 12.) Of course, 
the text clearly teaches that the unregenerate man, 
as such, even now. can not understand these things. 
But within a limited period, under the gracious in- 
fluences of the Divine Spirit, he may become regen- 
erate and be able to understand them. Now, if that 
limited period pass by without securing these gra- 
cious provisions made for him, then there will come 
on a deprivation of even the ability to understand 
them, and a perpetual, everlasting blindness will be 
the result. 

4. It is further declared that while he rejects 

them they are "foolishness unto him" They not 

only fail to interest him, but they appear to him 

unnecessary, inconsistent, and absurd, the height of 

weakness, ignorance, and folly. Hence the apostle 

says that " the preaching of the cross is to them that 

perish foolishness." Further, while the preaching 

of Christ crucified was to the bigoted and blinded 

22 



252 



SERMOXS. 



"Jews a stumbling-block/' it was to the refined, 
philosophizing H Greeks foolishness." So it has 
ever been. So it is now. To such persons the 
Gospel is an effete, worn-out system, a relic of a 
by-gone age. unworthy the attention or consider- 
ation of men of reason or of science. Or it is a 
myth in the eyes of Renan and his followers, or a 
fable in the eyes of Strauss and his admirers. 
Fichte truly says : " Our systems of philosophy are 
very often but the reflex of our hearts and lives. " 
And the cross of Christ's redemption and salvation 
by the blood of Christ is denounced and derided as 
a sanguineous religion, unworthy the character of 
God. contrary to human reason, and only deserving 
of ridicule and scorn. In fact, the unregenerate, 
scientific men of the present day, and all the vari- 
ous grades of free religionists, can find no words in 
their vocabulary too bitter, too scornful, and too 
derisive to express their idea of the foolishness of 
this great truth of God's inspired Word. 

It is equally so with the revealed truth of the 
efficacy of prayer. The very idea is abhorrent to 
many scientific men. To their mind, such is the 
inviolability of nature's laws, such their fixed and 
unalterable character, that no prayers can avail any 
thing with God — if even there is a God — or bring 
about any change in our character or relations. 
The prayer-test indorsed by Professor Tyndall a 
short time since was only the outcropping of this 
underlying stratum of unbelief, contempt, and ridi- 
cule. Such persons would put God and his moral 



NATURAL MAN AND SPIRITUAL THINGS. 253 



government and his laws and his revelations into 
their own crucible, and submit them to their own 
scientific tests. But the absurdity of all these prop- 
ositions and tests has been so clearly shown that 
more prayer is going up to heaven to-day from 
earnest and believing hearts than ever before; and 
more answers are coming down now from the God of 
Elijah, Daniel, and Paul -than at any former period. 

The great facts of religious experience are re- 
garded by this class of persons with mingled indif- 
ference and scorn. The forgiveness of sins, the 
renewal of the heart by the power of the Holy 
Ghost, the witness of the Spirit to our pardon and 
adoption, the peace and joy and hope outflowing 
from his indwelling presence and communion with 
God — all are foolishness to them. A radical change 
in our moral nature is pronounced an impossibility ; 
the experience in our consciousness of God's pardon- 
ing favor and friendship is a mere sentimentalism, 
or gross fanaticism; while the rapt and joyous man- 
ifestations of the Savior's presence and smile they 
look upon as great evidence of imbecility of mind, 
or, at least, of a partial insanity. These things have 
given rise to an almost infinite amount of merriment 
and ridicule, not only in bar-rooms and gambling- 
saloons, but also in clubs, in drawing-rooms, in 
boudoirs, in social circles, and amid the conviviali- 
ties of the dinner-table and the wine-cup. 

But while all this indilference and scorn are 
manifested against spiritual and heavenly things, 
they truly " mind earthly things/' their affection is 



254 



SERMONS. 



placed on the " things which are seen and temporal." 
As Jude declares, they are " sensual, not having the 
Spirit." Honor, worldly pleasures, sensual gratifi- 
cations, business interests and pursuits, every thing 
along the plane where they "live and move and 
have their being," are regarded as of more impor- 
tance and interest than the things which are spirit- 
ual, heavenly, and divine. 

5. How different is the condition of the spiritual 
man! He lives in another atmosphere, upon an- 
other plane, lifted up far above the low, the grov- 
eling, and the vulgar things of this world. He 
lives a new life, is influenced and controlled by new 
hopes, aims, and desires. He has burst the narrow 
shell of w T orldly passion, pleasure, and folly; and 
his soul is rising into a new realm, on the wings 9 
of faith and hope. Now he minds the things which 
are spiritual anct heavenly, he " seeks the things 
which are above." Just as the child drops its play- 
things, its dolls and wooden horse and gun and 
other toys, when it comes to womanhood or man- 
hood, so the true Christian drops the trivial things 
of this world. Just as the light of day eclipses all 
the stars, so the pleasures of the world fade from 
sight when Christ and his salvation are enjoyed. 

It was so with the apostle. After enumerating 
all those things which had been the objects of his 
glory, or of his ambitious pursuits, he exclaims : 
"But the things which were gain to me, those I 
counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I count all 
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge 



NATURAL MAN AND SPIRITUAL THINGS. 255 



of Christ Jesus my Lord ; for whom I have suffered 
the loss of all things, and do count them but dung 
[filth, garbage] that I may win Christ." 

6. But while pursuing this course he is not to 
be judged, or discerned by the standard of this world y s 
maxims, practices, or reasonings. Viewed from such 
a stand-point, the Christian is beside himself, is a 
fool, is mad. So Paul appeared to Festus. Stand- 
ing before him, with the prisoner's chain clanking 
on his arm, relating with overwhelming earnestness 
and eloquence his experience, and proclaiming his 
hope in Christ and the power of his resurrection, 
the Roman governor exclaimed, with a loud voice, 
" Paul, thou art beside thyself ; much learning doth 
make thee mad." So it seemed to him. But Paul 
answered, with calm dignity, " I am not mad, most 
noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth 
and soberness." So he appeared, also, to the wise 
men at Athens, when they called him a " babbler." 
So he appeared to many in Corinth, to whom he 
replied : " For whether we be beside ourselves," as 
many had declared they were, "it is to God; or 
whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the 
love of Christ constraineth us." O, here was an 
element, a principle, which they knew nothing 
about ; of which, while they knew nothing about it, 
they could not judge of the effects upon them. And, 
further, Paul declares that he and his fellow-labor- 
ers and brethren were counted fools, in the estima- 
tion of the world, " for Christ's sake." 

So it has been all along the ages. The holiest, 



256 



SERMONS. 



the purest, the best men the world has ever known, 
have been branded as heretics, madmen, fanatics, 
fools; and when it has had them fully in its power 
it has burned, tortured, beheaded, drowned, and in 
a thousand forms put them to death. Thus the 
world, the natural, carnal, sensual men of the world, 
have adjudged spiritual men; but Heaven has re- 
versed their judgment. 

While the J ewish -Sanhedrin are " cut to the 
heart, gnashing their teeth with rage," and con- 
demning the lovely, angel-faced Stephen to death, 
he looks up and sees the heavens opened, and Jesus 
standing at the right hand of God, awaiting to wel- 
come him to 'his heavenly home. While Nero 
gloats over the imprisonment of Paul and his 
speedy death, he is beholding, with a faith which 
no prison-walls can bound and no chains can fetter, 
"the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the 
righteous Judge, will give him in that day." While 
Huss and Jerome are condemned by the Council of 
Constance to the flames, Jerome goes to the stake 
singing, "Salve feste dies." So it has always been. 
Condemned to be slain, "to be sawn asunder, to 
wander in sheep-skins and goat-skins, in dens and 
caves of the earth, afflicted, persecuted, tormented, 
yet the world has not been worthy of them ;" and 
mansions and crowns and thrones have been await- 
ing them in the kingdom of God. 

This by no means implies that a man may not, 
under the pretense of great piety and spirituality, do 
very wrong and even very wicked things, which are 



NATURAL MAN AND SPIRITUAL THINGS. 257 



to be judged and condemned by the Church and 
the world. Nor does it imply that men may not 
be really fanatical, and beside themselves with 
strange notions and unfounded fancies. The apostle 
is speaking of those who are truly spiritual — that is, 
good, holy, devoted men, under the influences of the 
Divine Spirit. Such men are in a condition to judge 
of, or discern, all things in the realm where they 
live, and they are not to be judged by those in an- 
other state or condition. " The secret of the Lord 
is with them that fear him ; and he will shew them 
his covenant." They live so near to God that they 
hear his whispers, and talk with him as friend with 
friend. Their eyes are opened to understand spirit- 
ual things, and their hearts to discern them. This 
does not argue any infallibility of judgment, but 
only a wise discernment in reference to matters 
which are known to them. And O how often are 
those things which " are hid from the wise and pru- 
dent revealed unto babes!" The scientists, philos- 
ophers, and metaphysicians overlook them as of no 
consequence, or judge harshly with reference to 
them, or refine and speculate them all away ; but 
the humble, spiritual man sees them, knows them, 
and walks in the light of God. 

7. But finally every man renewed by the Holy 
Ghost has "the mind of Christ " This may refer to 
two things: first, the spirit, the disposition of Christ, 
such as his meekness, gentleness, love, etc.; or to a 
possession of the knowledge of his will, his purposes 
towards men through the revelations of his word 



258 



SERMONS. 



and Spirit. JThe natural or unspiritual man neither 
knows nor approves of the mind of the Lord. He 
can not instruct it with all his boasted wisdom and 
science, but the humble Christian has the mind of 
Christ. His Word is not only in his hands but in 
his heart. His Spirit dwells within him, giving 
him divine illuminations and instruction. He un- 
derstands what the will of the Lord is. It was in 
view of this that Jesus said to his disciples : "Hence- 
forth I call you not servants, but friends; for the 
servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I 
have called you friends ; for all things which I have 
heard of my Father I have made known to you." 

Instead of the spiritual man assuming to instruct 
the mind of Lord he "receives with meekness the 
engrafted Word." He sits down low in the dust at 
the feet of Jesus to learn of him. Daily and hourly 
he seeks counsel from God as to what he shall do. 
And thus doing and seeking to understand the will 
of the Lord, he " knows of the doctrine that it is of 
God and not of man." O it is wonderful what 
views the humble and sincere Christian has of Christ 
and of his salvation ! The Holy Spirit takes of the 
things of Christ and shews them to him. They 
who have been thus enlightened by the Spirit 
may not have studied the great tomes of theology; 
they may not know the names of great bibliograph- 
ers, scholars, and scientists, but they do know Jesus 
Christ; they have studied his Word under the 
illumination of his Holy Spirit, and they often dis- 
cover in it beauties, depths, glories which the wise 



NA T URAL MAX AND SPIRIT UA I THINGS. 259 



and learned have never seen. Macaulay has said 
in one of his brilliant essays : " He who would be a 
great poet must become a little child." So the phil- 
osopher and savant tell us that he who would be 
great in their departments must also become a little 
child. And this is eminently true in the kingdom 
of God. He who would become greatest of all 
must be the servant of all ; and he who would enter 
into this kingdom and understand its mysteries and 
glories must become and remain a little child. 
We conclude by saying, 

1. If you would understand or discern spiritual 
things you must first become spiritual. Many refuse 
to seek religion because they do not understand it. 
Nor will they ever understand it until they seek it. 
The only way to understand chemistry is to become 
a chemist. The only way for a blind man to under- 
stand colors is to have his eyes opened. The only 
way to discern and know spiritual things is to become 
a spiritual men. Do you ask, then, 

2. How may I become a spiritual man? I 

answer, simply by coming to Jesus. Thus the blind 

received their sight, the lepers were cleansed, and 

the dead raised. Thus you may become a spiritual 

man. And this is no long or tedious process that 

is required. Even now the Healer is present. Even 

now the Holy Ghost is hovering near. Even now 

you may be lifted up out of the region " of darkness 

and of the valley and shadow of death " into the 

realm of spiritual light, comfort, and joy. Even 

now the scales may fall from your eyes, and you 

23 



260 



SERMONS. 



may open them in wonderment upon the glories of 
the spiritual world. 

3. And when this divine translation and trans- 
formation have been effected, you will wonder at 
your former blindness and ignorance, your folly and 
sin. A little boy was born blind. At last an oper- 
ation was performed; the light was let in slowly. 
When, one day /his mother led him out of doors and 
uncovered his eyes, and for the first time he saw 
the sky and earth, "O, mother!" he cried, "why 
did n't you tell me it was so beautiful ?" She burst 
into tears, and said : " I tried to tell you, dear, but 
you could not understand me." So it is when we 
try to tell what is in the Bible. Unless the spirit- 
ual sight is opened we can not understand. You 
will be ready to ask yourself, "What have I been 
doing ? What folly and madness have been mine ! 
And is it possible for me to make this known to 
others?" Then the things which "eye hath not 
seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart 
of man to conceive, will be revealed unto you by 
the Spirit of the Lord." 



THE WORLDLING AND CHRISTIAN. 261 



XV. 

CONTRAST BETWEEN" THE WORLD- 
LING AND THE CHRISTIAN. 

Text: " Wherefore be not unwise, but understanding what 
the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is 
excess: but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in 
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making mel- 
ody in your heart to the Lord. "— -Epkesians v, 17-19. 

There are certain great wants in man's physical, 
mental, and spiritual being. These are ever seek- 
ing their gratification and supply. There is a two- 
fold source from which such supply is sought: the 
worldly, including the animal or sensual; or, the 
spiritual, including the heavenly and the divine. 
Now, if men were pure or good or holy in their 
natures, they would naturally seek for the satisfac- 
tion of their longings in the things which are pure, 
lawful, and good ; but as they are depraved, fallen 
beings, they naturally seek such gratification in the 
low, the groveling, the sensual, and the sinful. The 
only way in which they will or can ever be induced 
to seek for the pure, the real, and the satisfying 
good which their natures demand is by some out- 
ward influence brought to bear upon them by the 
Holy Spirit, acting either directly or indirectly upon 
them, revealing to them their true condition, con- 



262 



SERMONS. 



vincing them of the need of something higher 
and better than earthly and sensual things, and in- 
spiring within them desires after the spiritual and 
the divine. 

Men must have happiness, they long for stimu- 
lant, they must have excitement ; and if not derived 
from the spiritual, the good, and the pure, they will 
seek them from the evil, the base, the degrading 
and enslaving sources of sensuality and %in. This 
seems to be the very idea of the apostle here. Two 
classes of persons are brought before us — the one 
" unwise," senseless, madmen, "drunk with wine," 
and riotous and profligate, singing drunken, Bac- 
chanalian songs; the other "understanding what the 
will of the Lord is," "filled with the Spirit," and 
expressing their joy " in psalms and hymns and 
spiritual songs." The apostle evidently had his eye 
upon the feasts of Bacchus, in which men drank 
wine until drunkenness, riotousness, profligacy, and 
sensuality were dominant in them, and then ut- 
tered the odes to the god, singing, shouting, and 
dancing in their wild, delirious dreams. Now, in 
contrast to these scenes, with which the Ephesians 
were very familiar, the apostle would have them to 
be filled, not with the spirit of wine, but with the 
Spirit of God ; not to sing Bacchanalian songs, but 
those that are spiritual, or inspired by the Holy 
Spirit. 

Here, then, we have the contrast between the 
worldly or animal man and the Christian or spiritual 
man. It is threefold : " 1. Exhilaration and elevation. 



THE WORLDLING AND CHRISTIAN. 



263 



2. Out of the course of nature. 3. By an Agent 
from without entering into men, and exciting their 
sensibilities." * It may be worth while right here 
to say that the Old Testament Scriptures use the 
word wine as a symbol of Gospel blessings under 
the dispensation of the Spirit. For instance : " Ho 
every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and 
he that hath no money, come, buy wine and milk." 
"And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts 
make a feast of fat things of wines on the lees well 
refined." Then, again, wine, pure wine, was prom- 
ised as a special blessing under the Old Testament 
dispensation; but only, so we think, as signifying 
the rich blessings of the Holy Spirit. 

Yet once more, the effects of wine, as shown by 
an eminent pulpit orator,f are similar to the effects 
of the Spirit; that is, both these influences trans- 
port a man above and beyond himself, and cause 
him to think, act, and speak as he would not do 
without them. On the day of Pentecost, for in- 
stance, the people said, " These men are full of new 
wine." And since that time, not infrequently, men 
who have been filled with the Spirit have been 
charged with intoxication. These thoughts bring 
us now directly to consider the antithesis, the con- 
trast, presented in the text. 

1. The worldly or animal man is unwise, sense- 
less, mad. All sin is madness. The fact of moral 
insanity attaches itself to every ungodly man. In 
all its forms and features, whether it is a direct 

*Dr. Steele. IF. Kobertson. 



264 



SERMONS. 



violation of the law of God, or neglect, or forget- 
fulness of God, or unbelief, or procrastination of 
the claims of God, it is sin, is ruin, degradation, 
dishonesty, perdition, unless checked, restrained, and 
destroyed, And whoever, therefore, is living a life 
of sin is doing it in the face of consequences w T hich 
ought to and which would alarm a man acting as 
a reasonable or sane being. Sin brings a wild de- 
lirium over the soul, which marks its character and 
inspires its volitions and its actings. 

2. Intoxication is sought and practiced in various 
ways. The most common of these is wine, includ- 
ing under this name all intoxicants. In all ages of 
the world, and among all nations where the vine is 
grown — and sought for, even by those where it is 
not — the exciting, stimulating, intoxicating effects 
of this beverage have been sought. And no one 
can conceive, no tongue can tell, the ravages and 
ruin which it has wrought in human happiness, 
hopes, and hearts. It has wrecked some of the 
noblest men and women of our race. It has blighted 
the fondest hopes, it has brought untimely death 
and damnation on multitudes of our fellow-crea- 
tures. And still its fearful power is seen over all 
our land, and over all the earth, accomplishing the 
same destruction and ruin wherever it is indulged in. 

But the word covers more than wine ; it includes 
all that intoxicates the brain. There are very many 
who are u drunken," as the prophet says, "but not 
with wine." The eater of opium, the user of to- 
bacco, as well as, although under different forms, 



THE WORLDLING AND CHRISTIAN. 265 



puts himself under the excitement of a false stim- 
ulant. And not only so, the novel-reader, the play- 
goer, the gambler, all put themselves under the 
intoxicating power of what they read or see or do. 
And, in just so far as these things are indulged in, 
they unfit them for the higher, nobler, purer joys 
and pleasures of a spiritual religion. 

3. I need scarcely add that in these things there 
is what is here rendered " excess," but which means 
riotousness, profligacy, sensuality, and impurity. 
The whole history of the past, and all the facts of 
the present demonstrate this. Men and women who 
are swayed and influenced by these intoxicants in 
multitudes of instances have become profligates, 
unclean, deaf to reason, dead to, God, and have 
plunged themselves not only in the abysmal depths 
of degradation and sensuality and ruin here, but also 
into the awful vortex of hell in eternity. No won- 
der, then, that the apostle cautioned and urged his 
brethren against these things. 

But had he any thing higher or better to offer 
them? Was there a nobler, ' purer, holier, better, 
and happier life which they might live? Yea, 
verily ! And this life was the very antithesis, the 
opposite, the contrast, of that which he describes. 

1. Instead of being senseless, madmen, they 
were to "understand what the will of the Lord is" 
There are two Greek words which are rendered to 
know ; the one is to know intelligently, the other is 
to know as matter of fact. The former word is used 
here. And the idea is, as intelligent beings, under- 



266 



SERMONS. 



stand what the will of the God who made you is. 
"What he wills you to be and to do. This he has 
revealed in his Word; this he teaches us by his 
Spirit. Man can only realize the true ideal of man- 
hood when he knows and does the will of God. 
Certainly the Being who made him made him for a 
noble purpose, a glorious end. Such a wealth of 
wisdom, power, and goodness has been bestowed 
in the creation of his body, in the gift of his won- 
drous mental and spiritual powers, that he is not to 
pervert them by groveling in the dust and mire 
and filth of sensuality, or acting the senseless part 
of the bacchanal, the libertine, the unbeliever, or 
the fool. No, God wills him to be holy and to be 
happy in being Ijoly. As Butler w^ell says: "It is 
not so evident that God walls all men to be happy, 
or to make all men happy, as it is that he wills to 
make virtuous beings so. He wills that they should 
be like himself, partakers of his nature and par- 
takers of his bliss. 

2. Instead of being "drunk with wine" they 
were to " be filled with the Spirit" The antithetical 
idea here evidently is, that just as men who are 
drunken with wine are completely under its power, 
which controls every part of the body and every 
power of the soul, so the Christian is to be com- 
pletely under the power of the Spirit which is not 
only to regulate, but also to hallow, to inspire, to 
control every power of his being, so that he shall 
think and feel and speak and act, and, in a word, 
do every thing under his divine presence and power. 



THE WORLDLING AND CHRLSTIAN 267 



Such a state or condition we believe, we know, 
is possible. This is the promised outpouring or 
baptism of the Spirit. For, when that promise was 
fulfilled, it is said that "they were all filled with 
the Holy Ghost." Stephen " was a man full of the 
Holy Ghost." So it is said of the disciples that 
they were "filled with joy and with the Holy 
Ghost." And of Barnabas it is written : " He was a 
good man, full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. And 
all the members of the Ephesian Church were com- 
manded to "be filled with the Spirit." Thus the 
possibility of this is clearly seen, and what was pos- 
sible for them is possible for us. Some say, "Yes, 
to be filled with his fruits and graces." No, not 
these only, but with Himself. If he dwells within 
us we have his fruits and grace, and we can not 
have them unless he does. 

If we are filled with the Spirit we are filled with 
light and life and love and power and peace and joy 
and hope, with "glory and with God." We have 
a joy unknown to the worldling, the sensualist, the 
sinner, and a peace that is unspeakable. If we are 
filled with the Spirit all things contrary to him will 
be expelled; there will be no room for them. Pride, 
evil desire, anger, covetousness, lust, false ambition 
will all depart, cast out by his omnific arm. And 
not only will the whole soul be thus filled, but even 
the body will be the temple of the Holy Ghost and 
all its members will become "instruments of right- 
eousness unto holiness." Thus man will be lifted 
Up, transformed, metamorphosed, hallowed, made a 



268 



SERMONS. 



partaker of the divine nature " and of the bliss and 
joy of God. And thus, while not fully restored to 
a paradisiacal state, he is restored to all the higher, 
nobler, and better features of that state, and lives 
and walks and talks with God. 

(a) Here, then, we have the exalted privilege of 
every child of God. This only is the condition and 
vocation worthy of him. This is what God designs 
for him. By sin God was driven from the soul. 
Through Jesus the wondrous gift of the Holy Spirit 
has been procured, and by him God comes back 
into the deserted chambers of the soul to live with 
us, to walk with us, to talk with as, to make us 
glad and joyful in hig presence, and to fill us with 
his fullness. This is what we mean by true relig- 
ion. Not a creed, not a form, not a doctrine, not a 
catechism, but God dwelling in the soul bv the 
Holy Spirit and filling that soul with his presence, 
his peace, and his joy. This is the religion the 
Church needs, and the world is perishing for the 
want of it. 

And yet what a sad and sorry exemplification 
of this do many professed Christians exhibit to the 
eye of the world. No wonder that they turn aside 
from these burlesques, these caricatures of religion 
with disgust. If the life that many live is the life 
of a Christian, if the spirit they exhibit is the spirit 
of a Christian, then they don't want that life or 
spirit. They want something that is substantial, 
something that is real, something that is mighty to 
comfort, and support, to cheer and bless and save 



TEE WORLDIXG AXD CHRIS Tl AX. 



269 



theni. This the religion of the Holy Ghost can do, 
for he brings back God to the soul and dwells there. 

(b) Being filled with the Spirit, we have seen, is 
to be filled with all peace and joy and hope. This, 
only this, can arrest the tide of worldliness which 
is sweeping over the Church and threatening its 
vital interests. A religious training, religious con- 
victions, may keep one for awhile plodding on in 
the path of duty, but only a divine life can hold 
men to the Church and to a consistent, religious 
course. If men are not interested, inspired, stim- 
ulated by the peace and joy of the Holy Ghost they 
will seek, as we have seen, for unreal stimulants 
and seeming joys in the world and sin. If there is 
not life in the Church, the prayer-meeting, or the 
class, it will be sought amid the glitter and the 
glare, the false excitement, and the hilariousness 
and mirthfulness of the theater, the opera, the 
dance, or the saloon. If the divine life is not in 
the soul, a well of living water springing up into 
everlasting life, men will often come to draw waters 
from the wells of worldly pleasure or a the broken 
cisterns which can hold no water." And no amount 
of human restraint can prevent this. Ecclesiastical 
resolutions, censures, threats, denunciations will fall 
powerless to the ground. But those who are filled 
with the Spirit are independent of this world's pleas- 
ures and joys, of its smiles or frowns, of its amuse- 
ments and follies. Well may they say and sing — 

"Far from my heart be joys like these, 
Now I have seen the Lord." 



270 



SERMONS. 



Men would as soon change the light of the sun 
for that of a taper, or the pure gold for "fooPs gold," 
as to give up or exchange the real joys of religion 
for the seeming pleasures of the world. And, in- 
stead of its being difficult "to give up" these vain 
amusements, these worldly practices and pursuits, 
they are surrendered with the greatest cheerfulness 
"when Jesus is revealed." II men professing to be 
Christians have not enough of the presence and full- 
ness of the Spirit to satisfy them, to give them peace 
and joy, it argues clearly that they are more worldly 
than Christian, more sensual than spiritual. O it 
is " the joy of the Lord that is our strength." This 
makes the true child of God superior to all earthly 
things, and gives joy even in sorrows, tribulation, 
pain, and death. 

(c) And when the world around beholds such 
fruits of the Christian character and life many will 
long for the same peace and the same joy. It is an 
error to suppose that worldlings are well satisfied 
always with their pleasures and pursuits. O, there 
are times of disquiet and unrest, seasons of pertur- 
bation and alarm, when the poor, dissatisfied soul 
longs for peace, sighs and moans for real joy. But 
when they see professed Christians as eager for 
w T ealth,as ambitious for honor, as hot in the pursuit 
of worldly pleasure as themselves, they conclude 
that there is nothing in religion to meet and satisfy 
these longings. When, however, they see the man 
of God ignoring these worldly things, rising im- 
measurably above them as the eagle with his sun-lit 



THE WORLDLING AND CHRISTIAN. 



271 



eye flies towards the orb of day; when they see 
him joyful in tribulation, peaceful amid storms and 
tempests, victorious over death and the grave, then 
they will see there is that in the religion of Christ 
which the world knows not of, and will be led in 
many instances to seek for its enjoyment. 

Every martyr who expired in triumph at the 
stake, on the rack, on the gibbet or the block, was 
the means of bringing many to embrace the same 
Christ for whom he cheerfully gave up his life. 
So it has always been in the heroic periods of the 
Church's history. It was so in the days of Luther 
and Calvin and Knox, and so in the davs of White- 
field and Wesley and our fathers. 

But we can never convert the world by mere 

creeds, or forms, or semblances of religion, or fine 
churches, or gorgeous ceremonials, or tame, senti- 
mental sermons. The religion of the Holy Ghost! 
the religion of the Holy Ghost ! — that is what the 
world wants; and nothing but this will turn it 
away from its cups, its amusements, its excitements, 
its follies, and its sins. 

(d) There is one more thought here of deepest 
interest. It is this: wherever the fullness of the 
Spirit is enjoyed, there is a singing Church, or a 
singing Christian. 

You may not have been accustomed to trace the 
intimate connection of these parts of the text : " Be 
filled with the Spirit," and, " Speaking to each other 
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs;" and yet 
the connection is as natural and real as that of 



272 



SERMONS, 



cause and effect. Where the heart is filled with 
the Spirit, it is also filled with songs. This is in 
contradistinction to the odes which were sung to 
Bacchus, and, indeed, to all merely secular music. 
All along the ages God's people have been a sing- 
ing people. A large portion of the Old Testament 
is purely poetical. It is only when the people of 
the Lord, so called, are in captivity in a strange land 
that their " harps are hung upon the willows." The 
grandest music ever heard in this world, in ancient 
times, was in the Hebrew tabernacle and temple, 
when the sublime songs of Moses and David and 
Asaph, with harp and cymbal and trumpet accom- 
panying, were sung in their hallowed courts. And 
the sweetest and sublimest poetry, as well as the 
most magnificent and inspiring strains of music in 
the Christian era, have been produced and sung by 
intellects and hearts and voices under the inspira- 
tion of the Bible and the Holy Ghost. 

Bend your ear for a moment, and listen to the 
music of the ages. The first strains come from the 
shores of 4he Red Sea, where Pharaoh and his host 
"sank as lead in the mighty waters." Was ever 
victor's song more glorious or triumphant? This 
is followed by that of Deborah and Barak, when 
the stars in their courses fought for Israel. How 
grandly its strains floated over the plain of Esdra- 
e-lon, and were echoed by the rocky sides and sum- 
mit of Tabor! And as we come along down the 
a^es we are met bv a whole volume of song; from 
the royal psalmist, "the sweet singer of Israel," — a 



THE WORLDLING AND CHRISTIAN. 



273 



volume of song which has filled the world with the 
sweetest, saddest, and. most triumphant strains for 
centuries. These are followed by Solomon's songs 
and the sublime strains of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and 
Habakkuk. Then as we open the New Testament 
the key-note of its truths and triumphs is struck 
by angel harpers over the plains of Bethlehem, 
singing, " Glory to God in the highest !" Thus the 
first time the Gospel was ever proclaimed it was in 
the song of the angels. 

I know not whether Jesus sang often with his 
disciples, but once we know he sang with them ; for 
it is written that "when they had sung a hymn" — 
the great Hallel — " they went out into the Mount of 
Olives." The next we hear about singing is when 
Paul and Silas at midnight, in the inner prison, 
their backs lacerated, their feet in the stocks, prayed 
and sang praises to God, "and the prisoners heard 
them." From the text it is easy to understand that 
the early Church were accustomed to use " psalms and 
hymns and spiritual songs ;" so also in Paul's let- 
ter to the Golossians, where he says, " Let the word 
of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teach- 
ing and admonishing one another in psalms and 
hymns and spiritual songs ; singing with grace in 
your hearts unto the Lord." And the canon of 
Revelation closes with the mingled songs and dox- 
ologies of the Church militant with the Church 
triumphant. Pliny tells us, "the Christians were 
accustomed to meet together before day, and to 
sing a hymn to Christ, as to a god." Yes; and 



274 



SERMONS. 



they are singing such hymns to him yet, Governor 
Pliny ! not only before day, but in the night, and 
all the day long. 

So adown the ages ring out these songs of 
Clement, Gregory, Theophanes, St. John of Da- 
mascus. St. Hilary, Ambrose, Bede, Abelard, and 
St. Bernard, down to the Reformation em. Then 
Luther took up the lyre, and sang, in strains that 
roused the nations, not only the paraphrased psalms 
of David, but grand hymns of his own composing. 
There was also Hans Sachs, the shoe-maker of Nu- 
remberg, to whom the spread of the Reformation 
owes almost as much, under God, says D'Aubigne, 
as to Luther. Luther's hymn, 

"A safe stronghold our God is still, 9 ' 

is the imperishable psean of the Reformation. All 
Germany and Switzerland and France and England 
were vocal with these songs of the Reformers. 
Then followed on the songs of Spenser, Fletcher, 
Quarles, and Herbert ; and later, AVatts, Doddridge, 
Montgomery, Milton, Cowper, and a host of others, 
until the eighteenth century, when the great Pente- 
costal revival began, the fires of which are still 
burning. Then the Wesleys, and Olivers and Top- 
lady and Xewton and a mighty host of songsters 
were raised up, and the songs of the Church indef- 
infinitely multiplied. It has been so in the recent 
revivals of holiness. New songs have been added to 
the list which will never die, which are being sung all 
over the world. The ever-living Church of Christ, 



THE WORLDLING AND CHRISTIAN 275 



whether in the Catacombs, or among the Swiss Alps, 
is one with ours: 

" Their song to us descendeth ; 
The Spirit who in them did sing, 

To us his music lendeth. 
His song, in them, in us, is one ; 
We raise it high, we send it on, — 

The song that never endeth." 

Thus we have traced the connection between an 
effusion of the Spirit and the songs of the Church. 
The rule is, the more of the presence and power of 
the Spirit in the heart and in the Church the more 
songs and the more singing. In all the ages "the 
ransomed of the Lord have been returning and 
coming to Zion, with songs and everlasting joy upon 
their heads." 

But not only the grandest songs, but also the 
grandest music, have been inspired by a spiritual 
Christianity. Take as an illustration the sublime 
music of Handel, Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart, and 
others. Operatic music may be more exquisite, vo- 
luptuous, and sensual ; but Christian music is more 
refined, spiritual, sublime, as is seen in the oratorios 
of " Creation," " Elijah," " Messiah," etc. But what 
gives the real charm to Christian music is the 
"melody of the heart." There is thus a double 
melody, the melody of the heart and the melody of 
the voice. But without the former — the melody of 
the heart — the latter is less effective. Very much 
of our singing is heartless, flippant, thoughtless. 
It may be artistic, it may be sweet and charming; 

24 



27* 



SERMONS. 



but nothing can take the place of " the melody of 
the heart." O, where this is there is real melody, 
melody that inspires, attracts, and uplifts the soul ! 

Would to God that we had more of this kind 
of singing in our Churches ! Then we should draw 
the masses as we used to. O for a Church filled 
with the Spirit! Then we should have a Church 
full of holy song. Then we should triumph glori- 
ously as of old. 

."Be filled with the Spirit," not have an occa- 
sional visit from him, not merely a transitory peace 
and joy; but an abiding presence, an abiding peace 
and joy. And not only so, he filled with the Spirit, 
so that there will be no room for any thing else in 
your heart ; so that, also, your religious duties will 
be no drudgery, but a delight; so that your trials 
and sorrows may be easily borne; and you can 
"rejoice even in tribulation." If thus filled with 
the Spirit the world will lose its charms, your life 
will be one long, sweet psalm of praise, one contin- 
ued witness for Christ ; and your death — no ; you 
will not die, you will only fall asleep — will be one 
of holy triumph and glorious victory. ' You will go 
singing even u through the valley and the shadow 
of death;" and then, joining the innumerable hosts 
of the redeemed, you will continue the song for- 
over ! Amen, and amen. 



UTTERMOST SALVATION. 277 



XVI. 

UTTERMOST SALVATION. 

Text: "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the utter- 
most that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make 
intercession for them. 11 — Hebrew vii, 25. 

The redemption of the race was provisionally- 
secured by the sufferings and death of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. This is the great central truth of all 
revelation. It would seem that the cross of Christ 
is the great center of attraction to the universe and 
the eternities. It binds together " all things which 
are in the heavens and in the earth. " It is the 
everlasting provision of the eternity that is past, 
and the everlasting joy of the eternity that is to 
come. All our hope of pardon, purity, future and 
eternal blessedness centers in that cross. The resur- 
rection of Christ from the dead furnishes to our hu- 
manity its only hope of a future deliverance from 
a state of death, while it disrobes death of his terror 
and his sting, and the grave of its victory and its 
gloom. 

But Christ is not only our redeemer, our resur- 
rection and our life; he is, also, our mediator and 
intercessor before the throne. It is in this character 
that we are led to view him in the text. The apos- 



278 



SERMONS, 



tie in this letter contrasts the priesthood of Christ 
with that of the Jewish high-priesthood, and shows 
its infinite superiority. For instance, the Jewish 
high-priest was chosen from among men; Christ's 
priesthood is after the order of Melchizedec. The 
one could only offer the blood of the victims which 
had been slain, " Christ offered his own blood." 
The one was " after the law of a carnal command- 
ment, the other after the power of an endless life." 
The one was temporary, the other unchangeable. 
One could be removed by death. Christ ever liveth 
to make intercession for us. The one offered blood 
which could only typically and provisionally take 
away sin. Christ "is able to save to the uttermost 
all who come to God by him." 

Let us, then, consider the fact stated in the text, 
and the reason for it. 

I. The fact stated is, that Jesus Christ is 
"able to save to the uttermost all who come to God 
by him." This, indeed, is a most remarkable state- 
ment. May we be aided in our efforts to compre- 
hend it. The original word which we translate 
"uttermost" has had various renderings given to it. 
It has been rendered in different versions, "per- 
fectly," "forever," "completely," "most perfectly," 
"eternally." Luther, Calvin, and others render it, 
"He is ever able to save," and he is able to save 
forever. Alford says: "Completeness, not duration 
is the idea; also entirely, throughout." It would 
seem, however, from the general testimony, that the 
apostle had endeavored to combine in the word 



UTTERMOST SALVATION. 



279 



which he used the two ideas of completeness and 
continuity, or the fact that Christ is able to save 
completely and eternally. 

The first thing we are called to consider here is 
his ability to do this. The apostle says : He is able 
to do this. Is he ? This is a point upon which the 
inspired writers often dwell. If he is able to do 
this he is divine. If he is not able thus to save 
man he can not save him at all. Man wants an 
omnipotent mediator, who is able to save him from 
all his sins; an omnipresent one, who can be with 
him in all his trials and in every event in life, as 
well as in every place; and an omniscient one, who 
can know all his sorrows, temptations, follies, and 
weaknesses, and give him timely aid and succor. 
And such a mediator is not only "the man Christ 
Jesus," but, also, "God over all, blessed forever." 
It was said of him centuries before his birth, that 
"he is mighty to save." He claimed for himself, 
when upon earth, " the power to forgive sins," the 
power to keep the sheep of his flock so that "no 
man would be able to pluck them out of his hands." 
Paul declares his confidence in his ability when he 
says: "I know whom I have believed,and am per- 
suaded that he is able to keep that which I have 
committed unto him against that day." But the 
whole question of his ability to save men to the 
uttermost is settled when we learn that he is divine, 
"the Almighty." If he is the almighty mediator, 
then he is able to save to the uttermost. 

But what is this uttermost salvation? It em- 



280 



SERMONS. 



braces the uttermost of human sin and guilt. It is 
impossible for us to conceive of the multitude of 
sins of which many are guilty, their vast accumula- 
tions in thought, word, and deed, their offensiveness 
in the sight of God, the aggravatedness of their 
character, and their fearful consequences. And 
where these sins are there is proportionate guilt, 
condemnation, and exposure to the divine vengeance. 
But we understand by this announcement that, no 
matter how multiplied or aggravated or abominable 
sins may be, no matter how fearful and alarming 
the guilt, how fierce and how terrible the condem- 
nation, Jesus Christ can save us completely from 
all. What a category of sins is that which Paul 
presents before the eyes of the Corinthians as indi- 
cating their once fearful condition — " Fornicators, 
idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, sodomites, thieves, 
covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners." And 
then he adds: "Such were some of you." Could 
such men be saved? Were they saved? Yes; for 
he says: "Ye are washed, sanctified, and justified in 
the name," by the power, "of the Lord Jesus and 
by the Spirit of our God." If such men and women, 
such sinners, can be saved, then any sinners can be 
saved. The divine challenge to men — sinful, dying 
men — is, "Come, now, and let us reason together, 
saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, 
they shall be as white as snow ; though they be red 
like crimson, they shall be as wool." No language 
can surpass this in indicating the completeness of 
this salvation. 



UTTERMOST SALVATION. 



281 



But this is only its negative side. That sin- 
burdened, guilty, condemned soul is not only freely 
and fully forgiven and absolved from its guilt, but 
is also justified before God, and dealt with as if 
it had never sinned. Not only so, that soul on 
which the frown of the divine indignation had 
rested, which was condemned by the law and the 
justice of God, is now taken into favor and friend- 
ship, becomes a child and an heir of God, and walks 
daily in the light of his reconciled countenance. 

It is further a complete salvation Jrom the inbe- 
ing, the depravity, the pollution and defilement of sin. 
Sin is not only damning, it is also polluting, de- 
filing, covering the soul with its filthiness, its spots 
and stains. But in provision and promise it is 
declared that all these effects of sin may be removed 
from the soul. " Then," saith the Lord, "I will 
sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be 
clean from all your filthiness, and from all your 
idols will I cleanse you." "The blood of Jesus 
Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin." This is 
the declared purpose of Christ's death for all who 
come to God by him, to " sanctify and cleanse them 
with the washing of water by the Word, that he 
might present them to himself a glorious Church, 
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing." 
Jude declares that Christ is able not only to keep 
those who have thus come to him "from falling," 
but also to "present them faultless before the pres- 
ence of his glory with exceeding joy." Further 
than this, the Revelator tells us of a vast and count- 



282 



SERMONS. 



less throng who have actually washed their robes 
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, 
and have not only been thus saved from the pollu- 
tions of their sins, but have been saved in his heav- 
enly kingdom. So, then, we see that whatever of 
depravity, of pollution, there may have been in the 
passions, the propensities, the tempers or disposi- 
tions of 'those who come to God by Christ, they 
were all washed away, and the soul was cleansed 
and saved from all. 

Again, Christ is able to save from habits of un- 
godliness. Sin develops itself in various ways and 
superinduces various habits which are not only 
fearful in their character, but also powerful in their 
bondage. There are habits of impurity, of intox- 
ication through liquors and through opium in its 
various forms. There are also habits of lying, 
theft, and slanderous speech. But from all these 
Christ proposes to deliver all that come to God by 
him. This he has done in the past, this he can do 
now. The most inveterate opium smokers and 
eaters have thus been saved in England, America, 
and China. The most filthy and degraded drunk- 
ards have been rescued and saved from even the 
appetite for strong drink. Cannibals have been 
saved from their fearful habits of eating human 
flesh in Fiji and other islands of the sea. The most 
hasty, powerful and vicious tempers have not only 
been subdued, but those who have been subjected 
to them have become meek, gentle, and Christ-like. 
The covetous have become liberal, the misanthropic 



« 



UTTERMOST SALVATION. 



283 



kind and benevolent, the envious have in honor 
preferred others to themselves, and the cruel have 
become gentle, kindly, and loving. Prejudices of 
race, color, and condition have also been removed 
by this Almighty Jesus. The great, high wall of 
Jewish prejudice has been broken down, and Jew 
and Samaritan, and Jew and Gentile, have acknowl- 
edged and felt and acted that they were all one in 
Christ Jesus. He has removed the prejudices of 
the Caucasian against the dusky-browed African, 
and also the olive Mongolian. And he will not fail 
or be discouraged until he shall have united in one 
all races, kindreds, and tongues and tribes of men. 
In him now, and for the ages past, there is u neither 
Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, 
Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all 
and in all." 

It might be asked here, Why does he not do 
this for all? The answer is twofold: first, all who 
come to God by him do not always, or at once, 
understand their privilege and believe in him that 
he can and will do this work; and secondly, many 
w T ho theoretically know and believe in Christ's abil- 
ity do not put themselves completely in his hands 
that he may thus save them. So that very many 
who are truly called Christians are living beneath 
their privilege, and not really exhibiting before the 
world what Christ can do for poor sinners. Two 
things are predicated of this ability as exercised 
towards . fallen, sinful men : first, that they must 

come to God to be thus saved ; secondly, that they 

25 



284 



SERMONS. 



must come to God by Christ. Very many try to 
work out a righteousness of their own. They pro- 
ceed upon legalistic lines to build up a saintly char- 
acter for themselves, and they signally fail. Others 
come to God, but not in the name of Christ, not 
trusting in his blood, in his power to save to the 
uttermost. They doubt, they fear, they halt and 
hesitate; and, consequently, do not realize their 
privilege. They might be completely saved, but 
they are not. 

But no one who comes to the Father by Jesus 
Christ his Son, believing in his power to save and 
cleanse from all sin, will fail to realize this complete 
salvation. It is all ready now. The Almighty Christ, 
Redeemer and Mediator, is able now, is willing now, 
to do this work. Then, again, it is to be remem- 
bered that the work of saving the soul is not com- 
pleted at once. We are all, who come to God by 
Christ, in the process of being saved. That work 
will proceed " according to our faith." We may be 
fully forgiven now, fully cleansed now ; but growth, 
development, maturity, perfection of character, is the 
work of time, discipline, trial, frequent applications 
of the blood, the abiding presence of the Comforter 
and his sanctifying power, rivers of divine love, and 
oceans and seas of divine grace — all, all brought to 
bear upon us to complete our salvation, and fit us 
for the realms of the blessed and the blood-washed. 
All these divine agencies are ever present, and we 
can appropriate and realize them at any time by faith. 

Let us look still further at the fact, that Christ is 



UTTERMOST SALVATION. 



285 



able to save from the fear of death. This is an old and 
trite truth ; but it is a most wonderful truth, after all. 
This can not be said of any other system of religion, 
or of philosophy, ancient or modern, or of any sys- 
tem of unbelief. What we claim for Christ is not 
that he is able to impart a stoical or stolid indif- 
ference to death, which is superinduced by disease, 
or by a blinding, hardening course of iniquity 
or unbelief. It is something different from that 
bravery or fearlessness which the soldier experiences 
w T hen he is in the midst of the din and confusion 
of the battle ; or which the suicide experiences when, 
in consequence of some delusion or sense of dis- 
grace, from the effects of disease or of intoxicants, 
he takes away his own life. This is calm, peaceful, 
triumphant, overcoming the fear of death. No other 
system of religion puts into the lips of its votaries 
the song, " O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, 
where is thy victory?" 

And what Christ proclaims that he can and will 
do he has done. The martyrology of the Christian 
Church is a record of triumph over death in all the 
ages, in the midst of the most fearful surroundings 
and the most cruel tortures. Ten thousand thou- 
sand death-beds proclaim his power to save from 
the fear of death; and this is being repeated every 
day and every hour. The unregenerate, unbeliev- 
ing world need not attempt to conceal the fact that it 
has been " all its life-time subject to bondage through 
fear of death ;" nor the further fact that all its 
philosophies, its plans and schemes, can not deliver 



286 



SERMONS. 



from this bondage. But here is one who can do it. 
Here is one who has actually done it, as confirmed 
by the joyful experience of millions. Here is one 
who is doing this continually. " He that believeth 
in me," said he, " shall not see death." No ; he 
does not see death; he only sees his shadow, and 
that is so thin that the glory streams through it on 
the pathway of the believer as he is passing through 
the valley. That valley is kept vocal with the 
songs and shouts of God's victorious saints as they 
pass through it to their eternal home. 

Finally, he is able to save those who come to 
God by him eternally. " He is the Author of eter- 
nal salvation to all them that obey him." " Who- 
soever liveth and believeth on him shall never die." 
Christ is the life eternal to the souls and bodies ot 
his people. " I give unto them eternal life, and 
they shall never perish." " He that believeth on 
me hath everlasting life." It is begun here; it is 
consummated in the future and eternal world. In 
that heavenly world " there is no death ; but they 
reign with Christ forever and ever." Long as the 
eternal ages last his redeemed ones shall be saved 
from " the second death," and saved amid the burst- 
ing glories of the heavenly world. What that eter- 
nal salvation will comprise no tongue can tell, no 
language describe, and no heart conceive. But 
whatever it is in itself, and whatever it comprises, 
Christ is able to bestow it. 

II. But why is Christ able to save to the 
uttermost? What is the ground upon which this 



UTTERMOST SALVATION. 



287 



wonderful announcement rests? It is given us in 
the text : " He ever liveth to make intercession foi 
them." So the reason is a twofold one : First, Christ 
"ever liveth;" secondly, he "ever liveth to make in- 
tercession" There is not the possibility of a doubt 
that Christ once died on a cross on Calvary. That 
is as well established as any other historical fact. 
The Gospel history just as clearly states that he 
who once died now lives. He said himself to John, 
on the isle of Patmos, "I am he that liveth, and 
was dead; and behold I am alive for evermore, 
Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." 

Great stress is laid in the Word upon a living 
Christ. Paul says to the Romans : u Knowing that 
Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more; 
death hath no more dominion over him." ""When 
Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye 
also appear with him in glory." It has been the 
joyful experience in consciousness of the Church of 
God in all the ages: "T know that my Redeemer 
liveth." All those Scriptures which speak of his 
exaltation to the right hand of God, his being 
seated on the throne, his mediatorship there, tell us 
that he lives, that he lives to die no more. 

This truth is dear to the great heart of the 
Church of God. His is an unchangeable priesthood. 
Every thing else may change; but he is "the same 
yesterday, and to-day, and forever." He ever liveth. 
Friends may die, the world may change ; but until 
the heavens and the earth pass away he will con- 
tinue his mediatorial office. 



288 



SERMONS. 



But he lives for a purpose. Not only to reign, 
not only to subdue his enemies, not only to prepare 
a place for his people; but he lives to make inter- 
cession for them. This fact is referred to by the 
apostle when he says : " Who is he that condenm- 
eth? Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen 
again, who is even at the right hand of God, who 
also maketh intercession for us?" And the beloved 
John says : " If any man sin, we have an Advocate 
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; who 
is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours 
only, but also for the sins of the whole world." 
Here, then, we have the key to the power and 
prevalence of his intercession and advocacy. It is 
in the fact that he is the propitiation for our sins and 
the sins of the world. The intercessions are linked 
with the propitiation ; they refer to and are based 
upon his blood shed for us. Hence the apostle says, 
" Christ has entered into heaven itself, now to ap- 
pear in the presence of God for us." And how he 
thus appears John tells us in his apocalyptic vision : 
"And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, 
and of the four living ones, and in the midst of the 
elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain." Again 
he says ; " He was clothed with a vesture dipped in 
blood ; and his name is called the Word of God." 
So the apostle tells us in this letter: "Neither by 
the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood 
he entered in once into the holy place, having ob- 
tained eternal redemption for us." 

Thus we see that Christ, our great High-priest, 



UTTERMOST SALVATION. 



289 



presents himself before the Father as our Interces- 
sor and Representative. When the Jewish high- 
priest appeared before God in the holy of holies, he 
represented and interceded for all the tribes of Israel. 
Upon the shoulders of the Ephod there were two 
onyx-stones placed, each of them graven like the 
engravings of a signet, each stone containing the 
names of six tribes which Aaron was to bear before 
the Lord, upon his shoulders, for a memorial. Also, 
in his breastplate there were four rows of precious 
stones — a sardius, a topaz, a carbuncle, and an em- 
erald; a sapphire, a diamond, a ligure, and an agate; 
an amethyst, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. On 
each stone was engraved the name of a tribe of 
Israel., And the Lord said, "Aaron shall bear the 
names of the children of Israel, in the breastplate 
of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth into 
the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord con- 
tinually." So Christ presents himself before the 
throne for us. He bears in his hands and feet and 
side the names of a redeemed humanity. Every 
sinner, of every age, clime, country, color, language, 
or dialect, may say : 

" Before the throne my surety stands- 
My name is written on his hands." 

Again, he presents the merits of his sufferings 
and death as a moving plea in our behalf. The 
Scriptures already quoted clearly demonstrate this. 
But the question arises, " How does he intercede ?" 
Is there an oral intercession, such as he made for 
his disciples and the world in his "oratio sacerdo- 



290 



SERMONS. 



talis," in the seventeenth of John ? While we can 
not answer this question definitely, we can say, 
There is no need that he should speak; his wounds 
speak for us. Our poet has caught the idea here : 

" Five bleeding wounds he bears, 

Eeceived on Calvary; 
They pour effectual prayers, 

They strongly speak for me. 
Forgive him, forgive ! they cry, 
Nor let that ransomed sinner die." 

His blood speaks in our behalf. It tells of his 

sufferings, his agony, his death. And its priceless 

value the Father knows ; for it is the blood of his 

only-begotten Son. If Abel's blood assumed a voice, 

and cried out from the ground for vengeanee, the 

blood of Christ assumes a voice, and " speaks better 

things than that of Abel." 

" Jesus' blood, through earth and skies, 
Mercy, free, boundless mercy, cries." 

It was not necessary that the Greek soldier, 
Aminius, who had fought in the battles of Mara- 
thon, Platsea, and Salamis, should orally intercede 
for his brother, the poet iEschylus, when he was ar- 
raigned and about to be condemned to death. He 
simply threw off his cloak, and held Tip his maimed 
arm, part of which had been lost in the hard-fought 
battle of Salamis; and thus holding it up, he ap- 
pealed to his judges. And although he spoke nei- 
ther sentence nor word, that poor arm told the whole 
story, and his brother was released. So Christ pre- 
sents his wounds, his blood, for those who come to 
God by him, and the dying sinner lives. 



UTTERMOST SALVATION. 



291 



It is because he is there before the throne, that 
our prayers for " mercy and grace to help in time of 
need" are answered. How often these prayers are 
weak, feeble, ungrammatical, incoherent, unworthy; 
but our Great High-priest puts them all on his 
" golden censer" and offers them w T ith his own 
merits ; and they are heard and answered for his 
dear sake. We should not dare to approach the 
throne at all if he were not there. Its fiery terrors 
would not only affright us, but they would con- 
sume us. But because he is there, it is not merely 
a throne of sovereignty, a throne of power, a throne 
of law ; but, also, a throne of grace and mercy. To 
this we can come boldly; and while "the Spirit 
maketh intercession for us, with groanings which 
can not be uttered," and Christ intercedes for us 
before the throne, surely our prayers must be heard. 

But why are these intercessions so powerful? 
Not because he is constantly making atonements, 
but because he is constantly presenting the merits 
of an atonement once made. That was so perfect, 
so complete, that it need never be offered again. 
"This man, after he had made one sacrifice for sin. 
forever, sat down on the right hand of the throne 
of God." " Once in the end of the world hath he 
appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of him- 
self." He " needeth not daily," as the Jewish high- 
priests, " to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and 
then for the people's ; for this he did once when he 
offered up himself." I need only refer to the blas- 
phemy of the Romish priesthood when they pretend, 



292 



SERMONS. 



in the mass, to offer up Christ in sacrifice again. 
What a monstrous claim they make ! What a won- 
der that they have so long by this means deceived 
so many millions! 

But the power of Christ's intercessions is found 
in his character and in his work. Who is he that 
maketh intercessions for us? Who is our advocate 
before the throne?" It is " Jesus Christ the right- 
eous." He "is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate 
from sinners, and made higher than the heavens." 
He is the sinless one "who was made a sin-offer- 
ing though he knew no sin." He died for us, " the 
just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." 
And how admirably he possesses all the qualities of 
a successful advocate ! Wisdom, tender-heartedness, 
interest in the success of our cause, fidelity to his 
trust. He is "the only wise God." "We have 
not a High Priest which can not be touched with 
the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points 
tempted like as we are, yet without sin." "He is 
a merciful and faithful High Priest in things per- 
taining to God to make reconciliation for the sins 
of the people." And who can doubt his interest in 
the success of our cause ? Let Gethsemane and Cal- 
vary, the garden and the cross, answer this. 

Then look, also, at the relations which he sustains 
to the Father. He is his "Son," his "only Son," 
His "only begotten Son," his "only begotten and 
well-beloved Son." He can not turn him away. 
He might turn away an angel or a whole hierarchy 
of angels, but he can not turn from the pleadings of 



UTTERMOST SAL VA TION. 



293 



his Son. During our recent war a soldier, in a 
weak and dying condition, went into the office of a 
wealthy banker in Pittsburg. When the banker 
came in he said to one of his clerks : " I see you 
have another tramp here ; help him and let him go." 
u I have done so/' said the clerk, " but he wants to 
see yoti." The soldier said : H I belong to the com- 
pany of which your son is captain." Then the deep 
of the father's heart was reached, and he removed 
his glasses to wipe the tears from his eyes. " When 
did you see George?" he asked. "I have just come 
from there," he said, as he handed him a soiled 
paper, spotted with blood. The father read as fol- 
lows: "This is one of my men; he has been true; 
he is going home to die ; help him.— George." When 
the father saw that he quickly ordered the carriage, 
supplied him with changes of garments, and pro- 
vided for him a home — all this because of that 
blood-stained paper signed George. So Jesus pleads 
for us. And because his name is in our prayers 
they prevail. And when his people are in trouble 
or temptation or poverty or distress he pleads for 
them. Hear what he said to Peter : " Simon, Simon, 
behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may 
sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee that 
thy faith fail not." Well did the lovely McCheyne 
say: " Christ prayed most for Peter when he was 
most tempted. I am on his breastplate. If I could 
hear Christ praying for me in the next room I 
would not fear a million of enemies. Yet the dis- 
tance makes no difference. He is praying for me." 



294 



SERMONS. 



Yes, he has an eternal interest in the Father, 
and he has an infinite interest in us. He is the 
mediator. He has laid hold with one hand upon 
the eternal throne, and with the other upon our 
wrecked, ruined, and lost world. And he would 
reconcile us; would reunite us; would save us to the 
uttermost. "Who can tell how great is his sympathy 
for his people? "As God, he knows what is in us; 
as man, he feels it also." The sad, sorrowing, de- 
spairing heart of the world needs sympathy. Jesus 
is the sinner's friend. He is the sympathizing friend 
of his people. "In all their affliction he is afflicted. " 
In his love and in his pity he has borne them and 
carried them all the days of old." His broad bosom, 
on which the beloved disciple leaned, has room 
enough for all the weary, aching heads of the world. 
He is the great head of the Church, and he feels 
what all the members bear. He hears their groans, 
their feeblest sobs and sighs. "He counts their 
tears and puts them into his bottle." "The very 
hairs of their head he numbers." Thus with infinite 
power to save, he has infinite sympathy for all who 
come to God by him. 

And these intercessions will be continued for 
every sinner as long as his probation lasts. Indeed, 
it is this which gives and continues probation. It 
is an old question, "Wherefore do the wicked live ?" 
The only answer that is satisfactory is, "Because 
Jesus intercedes for them." What is there between 
the sinner and the burning lake but Christ's inter- 
cessions? And when those intercessions no longer 



UTTERMOST SALVATION. 



295 



avail for him he sinks, he dies, his probation is over, 
he is damned. 

And so, just as long as his people live, he inter- 
cedes for them. Up to their latest breath, as well 
as in every period of their earthly history, he still 
pleads for them, he still sympathizes with them. 
While the dear, angel-faced Stephen was being 
bruised, mangled, and slain, as well as while he 
stood before the raving, raging Sanhedrim, he saw 
Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and he 
said : " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit !" When they 
had done their worst then Jesus received him to 
himself, where the rage and malice of man could no 
more reach him. So ^yith us. In joy or sorrow, 
health or sickness, prosperity or adversity, in life 
and in death, he still pleads for us. But when all 
is over here we shall go to see him as he is, and to 
be with him where he is. And those dear wounds 
which bought our pardon and which now plead for 
us will be gazed upon forever by our raptured and 
wondering eyes. 

" All the tokens of his passion 

Still his dazzling body bears; 
Cause of endless exultation 

To his ransomed worshipers ; 
With what rapture 

Gaze we on those glorious scars." 

There he will stand at the right hand of God, 
the Father, pleading for a redeemed world and for 
his ransomed ones until time is no more. " Then 
cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up 
the kingdom [the mediatorial kingdom] to God, 



296 



SERMONS. 



even the Father; when he shall have pnt down all 
rule and all authority and all power. For he must 
reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 
The last enemy which shall be destroyed is death. " 
Then the world's probation will end. Then time 
will be no longer. Then the saints will all be saved 
forever. Then the wicked shall be banished "from 
his presence and the glory of his power." 

"He is able to save to the uttermost." Where, 
then, is that sinner who has been thinking "It is 
impossible for me to be saved?" Why should you 
think so ? O if your sins were numerous and number- 
less as the atoms in God's universe the blood of Christ 
could wash them all away. He is able to save the 
chief of sinners. If you could fix limits to immens- 
ity and run the boundary lines of eternity then you 
might think there is a limit to Christ's power to 
save all who come to God by him. And yet, after 
all, there is a limit — not of ability to save, but of 
the conditions of salvation and the time when it may 
be enjoyed. "Xow only is the accepted time; now 
only is the day of salvation." Let this time of pro- 
bation pass by unimproved ; let this day of gracious 
visitation go by and there will be no more proba- 
tion, no more offers of salvation, no more hope. 
Come, then, to God by Christ now. Do not delay. 
Come just as you are. Come with all your guilt 
and sin upon you. And Jesus can and he will 
save you. 

"Where is that believer, groaning under the bur- 
den and the bondage of inbred sin, and doubting 



UTTERMOST SALVATION. 



297 



whether or not he can be fully saved? Hear what 
the text declares. Doubt no longer. Come, and let 
Jesus save you to the uttermost. He can do it. He 
has done it for many others. He will do it for you. 
O believe the record ! O accept the provision ! Now 
he waits to save !" The blood of Jesus Christ, God's 
only Son, cleanseth from all sin." 

" He breaks the power of canceled sin, 
He sets the prisoner free ; 
His blood can make the foulest clean, 
His blood availed for me." 



\ 



298 



SERMONS. 



XVII. 

THE BLOOD AND THE TESTIMONY. 

Text : "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, 
and by the word of their testimony ; and they loved not their lives 
unto the death." — Eevelation xii, 11. 

We have here before us the two great forces by 
which the powers of darkness* are to be overcome 
and finally and forever destroyed. The chapter 
opens with a vision of the Old Testament Church, 
under the symbol of " a woman in heaven." 
Through that Church a man-child, " the Son of 
man," is born. The " dragon," a symbol of Satan 
as he acts through heathen governments and their 
rulers, and through wicked men in every age, stands 
ready, in the person of Herod, to destroy him at his 
birth. But, after a conflict with sin, Satan, and 
death, he, the Son of man, is caught up into heaven, 
and exalted at the right hand of God. Then " the 
dragon, the old serpent, called the devil and Satan, 
was cast down with his angels from heaven." A 
shout, so loud that it is heard in heaven, now pro- 
claims, " Now is come salvation and strength and the 
kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ : 
for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which 
accused them before God night and day." But the 



THE BLOOD AND THE TESTIMONY. 



299 



dragon, although cast down from heaven to earth, 
was not slain, but persecuted the Church of God, 
and endeavored by every means in his power to 
swallow it up. But all his efforts in this direction 
have been unavailing. Even "the earth has helped 
the woman." God has so overruled heathen powers 
that they have rather helped than hindered the on- 
ward triumphs of the kingdom of Christ. 

In this great, on-going conflict, the conflict of 
the ages, the saints of the Most High overcome all 
their enemies "by the blood of the Lamb, and by 
the word of their testimony." These are the great 
forces which they wield, which neither the world 
nor sin nor death nor hell can withstand. By these 
the individual Christian finally triumphs; and by 
these the ransomed Church shall yet overcome all 
her foes. Notice two things : 

I. What they overcame. 

The word overcome is used, in its various forms, 
many times in the New Testament ; and we have no 
difficulty whatever in understanding the character 
of the conflict, and the character, the numbers, and 
the power of the foes over whom this triumph is 
realized. There is one great foe, who is the origin 
and source of all this conflict, and under him are 
marshaled the legions of angels and wicked men 
who obey his behests and follow his leadership. 
That foe is symbolized by "the dragon," and is also 
called "the old serpent, the devil and Satan." He 
is the determined foe of Christ and his Church. 

He assailed him directly when upon the earth in 

26 



300 



SERMONS. 



the wilderness-conflict, and instigated and inspired 
all the opposition and persecution which he suffered, 
and the death which he died. 

1. Over and over again our Savior recognized 
this foe when he was in the world, not only in over- 
coming him in his direct assaults, but in the malice 
and hate of the Jewish people : " Ye are of your 
father, the devil ; and the deeds of your father will 
ye do." " The prince of this world cometh, and 
hath nothing in me." "This is your hour and the 
power of darkness." It was this dragon which 
prompted Herod to slay him; which enkindled the 
jealousy, the malice, the rage, and the hate of the 
Jewish people against him ; which took possession 
of Judas, and led him to betray him ; which inspired 
the wild, tumultuous, and fiendish cry, " Crucify 
him!" and which hissed and cursed through the 
teeth and lips of the priests and the people who 
mocked and derided him when he hung upon the 
cross. 

And now that the Great Head of the Church is 
on the throne, and beyond his power, he assails his 
members in every possible form. Hence they are 
commanded to "put on the whole armor of God, 
that they may stand against the- wiles of the devil ;" 
and it is said, " He goeth about as a roaring lion 
seeking whom he may devour," or that "he is 
transformed into an angel of light;" and that "we 
wrestle against wicked spirits in high places." This 
is " the wicked one," and he must be overcome. 

2. Under him is the world: the unregenerate por- 



THE BLOOD AND THE TESTIMONY. 



301 



tion of mankind ; heathen or anti-Christian govern- 
ments ; systems of superstition, error, and infidelity, 
and of philosophy and "science, falsely so called;" 
organized forms of iniquity, as the traffic in intox- 
icating drinks, the opium trade, and the like; false 
systems of religion, represented by " the beast and 
the false prophet," and every form of heathenism ; 
the corrupt and wicked passions of men ; licentious- 
ness, whether in the form of legalized prostitution, 
or in the abominable things which are practiced by 
the impure in secret; all the evil passions of men, 
their persecutions, in all their various forms — these 
all are included in that world which assails the 
Christian, and which he is to overcome. These are 
gathered up by the apostle in that wonderful resume 
of the opposing powers over which saints are more 
than conquerors, in Romans viii, 33-39. This ter- 
rible array of visible powers and principles, is ani- 
mated and inspired by the great arch-fiend of hell. 

It has often been said, derisively, that when 
Satan offered to give Christ all the power and glory 
of the world if he would fall down and worship 
him, " that he could well promise this, as it was not 
his to give." But are we so sure of this? Is he 
not called by our Savior "the prince of this world?" 
Is he not called by the apostles " the god of this 
world?" And after eighteen centuries of bitter 
conflict, does he not control more than two-thirds 
of its population at this hour? Is he not able now, 
through the world, at nearly every point, to meet 
and assail and harass and render almost abortive the 



302 



SERMONS. 



Church in her efforts to subjugate the world to 
Christ? Does he not now attack every child of 
God, not only by direct and inward struggles, but 
through the sneers and sarcasms and jibes and jeers 
and smiles and frowns and seductions and allure- 
ments of the world? Up to this hour there is no 
government in this world that is thoroughly Chris- 
tian, and the governments of its largest populations 
are anti-Christian. A large part of the literature 
of the world is unchristian; and so are its social 
habits, its maxims, and its practices. O, this "vile 
world is no friend to grace, to help us on to God." 
Thus, while Satan has not the absolute ownership 
and control of this world, yet he is permitted to 
rule it, and control it for a season. 

3. Another enemy to be overcome is death. This 
is the most fearful and alarming foe which stalks 
abroad in the vast arena of conflict. Viewed aside 
from Christ and his great provisional work, he is 
the terror of the world. The whole race has been 
"under bondage, subject to the fear of death." 
And he is the last enemy who is to be overcome. 
Look for a moment at his fearful work. More than 
three thousand millions every century fall under his 
fearful blow. He has turned this earth into a vast 
charnel-house, which is honeycombed with graves, 
and burdened with the multitude of its dead. His 
dark and chilling shadow has blighted and withered 
the fondest hopes, has begloomed the brightest and 
sweetest earthly associations, and has settled like a 
pall over all the habitations of men. And still his 



THE BLOOD AND THE TESTIMONY. 303 



fearful reign is continued, and still, at every in- 
stant, his blow is falling on some member of our 
race. 

Then look at the weapons which he employs. 
"War, with its terrible enginery; famine, whose 
gaunt form shrinks and shrivels up its thousands ; 
" pestilence walking in darkness," and, like the de- 
stroying angel, sweeping myriads from its path; 
calamities of fire and flood, with crackling flame and 
crested wave, devouring and destroying multitudes 
in an hour; consumption, wasting away vast num- 
bers every year; and racking pains, and burning 
fevers, and fearful accidents on sea and land. Thus 
he makes the stoutest hearts to quail, and the strong- 
est to tremble before him. 

There are yet other forms in which he has come 
to the saints of God : in burning fagots, in blood- 
stained racks, and hungry lions and tigers, the 
thumb-screw and the boot, the gallows and the 
block, and in a thousand forms of terror which 
Satan has added to the power of death. These, in 
brief, are the enemies to be overcome. 

II. HOW THEY OVERCAME. 

It would seem, as we stand and gaze at this mul- 
titudinous host of foes, that they never could be 
overcome. And, indeed, by vast multitudes they 
never are overcome. But here, in the text, is a 
class of persons who are said to have overcome ; 
and here are presented the means by which their 
victory and triumph were secured. These are two- 
fold : " the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their 



304 



SERMONS. 



testimony. Strange weapons, these!" you will say. 
Surely they are "not carnal," and yet they are 
" mighty, through God, to the pulling down of 
strongholds." 

The blood which dripped from the brow, the 
hands, and feet and side of the Son of God on the 
hill of Calvary gave the promise and pledge of this 
world's redemption and restoration. 

1. It may be said in the first place that the 
victory over the dragon, specifically foretold here, 
teas achieved by these means. This is a victory over 
the heathen government of the Roman Empire 
through the cross of Christ or the blood of the 
Lamb. The Roman government, supporting the 
idolatries of its vast empire, had been the most 
formidable foe of the Christian Church. Countless 
thousands of its saints had been martyred in the 
most cruel forms. And yet they went fonvard trust- 
ing in the blood and bearing their testimony to its 
power. Gradually, yet surely, the cross triumphed 
over vast multitudes and in many provinces of the 
empire. The Eternal City itself was moved by its 
power. The Roman senate # heard of Jesus, and 
offered to his followers to place his statue among 
the dii-majores. But this offer w 7 as rejected with 
scorn, for they knew the time would come when he 
would be acknowledged and crowned Lord of all. 

In the year 300 Constantine came to the throne, 
and the banner, all stained with hallowed blood, 
floated from the throne of the Caesars. And what is 
singular here is, that there was a picture of Con- 



THE BLOOD AND THE TESTIMONY. 305 



stantine set up over the palace-gate, with the cross 
over his head, and the great enemy who persecuted 
the Church in the form of a dragon, transfixed with 
a dart through the midst of his body and falling 
headlong into the sea. The great "Labarum" 
which he bore at the head of his armies had on it 
the picture of the cross and the words, ^in hoc 
signo vinces." And Prudentius, speaking of the 
Christian soldiers of the empire, says: "They have 
the ensigns of'Csesar; they choose the standard of 
the cross/ and instead of the dragon-flags which they 
carried, moved about with the wind, they bring 
forward the illustrious word that subdued the 
dragon." 

Thus through the cross, which always signifies 
salvation by blood and by death, the heathen Roman 
Empire was subdued by the saints. And thus the 
prophecy was here fulfilled. But the words have a 
wider application and are the heritage and the assur- 
ance of God's saints in every age and in every place. 

2. Victory over Satan is assured to the saints on 
account of the blood of the Lamb. It is in conse- 
quence of his shedding his blood that this victory is 
possible and that it is actually realized. When the 
apostle, in his letter to the Romans, speaks of the 
certain victory of believers over all antagonizing 
powers, he says: "We are more than conquerors 
through him that hath loved us." It is by this 
blood, also, that Satan, as "the accuser of the breth- 
ren, is cast down." From the earliest ages he has 
accused God's saints before his face, and he also 



306 



SERMONS. 



accuses them now from time to time. But through 
the blood of the Lamb he*is cast down, his accusa- 
tions can not stand, and he is overcome. It is a 
tradition among the Jews that the devil accuses 
men every day in the year, excepting on the day of 
atonement. Luther says Satan once came to me 
and said: " Martin Luther, you are a sinner, and 
you will be damned." "Stop, stop," said I, "not 
so fast. I know that I am a sinner, but it is not so 
certain that I shall be damned, for Jesus died for 
me." And now "there is no condemnation to them 
who are in Christ Jesus" — neither from the justice 
of God nor from the law nor from Satan nor from 
conscience. 

But not only so, all his temptations, his fiery 
darts, his fierce assaults are thus overcome. The 
blood of the Lamb is our battle-cry, a bleeding 
lamb is portrayed upon our shields, and victory is 
certain. And it is through Jesus who died, yea, 
rather who liveth, and is exalted at the right hand 
of God, that the old dragon shall soon be seized 
and bound and cast into the bottomless pit, whence 
he shall no more go out to deceive the nations or 
disturb the Church of God. 

3. It is thus, also, that the icorld is overcome. 
"This is the victory which overcometh the world," 
even faith in the blood of the Lamb. This inspires 
the soul with confidence and with courage; this 
elevates it above all its antagonisms, and makes it 
superior to all earthly things. The great Leader, 
the Lamb of God, went before his Church in this 



THE BLOOD AND THE TESTIMONY. 307 



strife. And he now says to all its members, " True, 
in the world ye shall have tribulation ; but be of 
good cheer. I have overcome the world." And 
then, again, "To him that overcometh will I grant 
to sit with me in my throne, even as I also over- 
came, and am set down with my Father on his 
throne." That great multitude before the throne 
already, although they went there through great 
tribulation, have washed their robes and made them 
white "in the blood of the Lamb," and it is said 
that, "therefore are they in his presence." They 
are there victors and conquerors, waving their palms 
and celebrating their victories before the throne, all 
through the blood. 

4. It is thus also that they overcome death. That 
grandest of all triumphant songs ever uttered in 
this world, "O, death, where is thy sting?" is 
rounded up into glorious completeness in its final 
strains, "Thanks be unto God who giveth us the 
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ;" and also 
in that wonderful utterance of the apostle in his 
letter to the Hebrews, where he says: "Foras- 
much as the children were partakers of flesh and 
blood, he also himself likewise took part of the 
same, that through death he might destroy him that 
had the power of death." "It was the death of 
Christ which brought to nought the agency of the 
devil in death, because that death of his being not 
the penalty of his own sin, but the atoning sacrifice 
for the sin of the world, all those who by faith are 

united to him can now look on death no longer as 

27 



308 



SERMONS. 



the penalty of sin, but only as the passage for them, 
as it was for him, to a new and glorious life of 
triumph and blessedness." (Alford.) Hence all 
who believe in the Lamb of God, have victory over 
death. They are no longer enslaved by his cruel 
bondage, nor startled with terror and alarm at his 
approach. They merely feel his shadow passing 
over them, and that is so thin that the glory of the 
smile of Jesus breaks through it, and the light of 
heaven makes it luminous. 

But there is another factor to be taken into 
account in considering this triumph, and that is, 
"The word of their testimony " This is the ordained 
means of the great Head of the Church. It was for 
this purpose that they were to be endowed with 
power from on high, that they might "be witnesses 
unto him in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the 
uttermost parts of the earth." This is the human 
side of this victory, while the blood of Christ pre- 
sents us with the divine and the meritorious side. 
This is the part of the individual believer and of 
the entire Church of God, not only in our personal 
triumphs, but also in that grand universal triumph 
which the saints shall yet realize and enjoy. 

It is this testimony of a witnessing Church 
which shall yet bring all this world to Christ. 
Every one who believes in Christ, and is vitally 
united to him, is ordained to be a witness for him, 
a witness of his character, his divinity, his life, his 
sufferings, and death, his resurrection, ascension, 
and mediation before the throne. And not only so, 



THE BLOOD AND THE TESTIMONY. 309 



he is not only to tell what Christ is, and what he 
has done for the ivorld, but also what he has done for 
him. He is to testify as to what he has seen and 
felt and known. This gives power and pungency 
to the testimony. It is not only proclaiming Jesus 
is a Savior, and a mighty Savior, but saying, a I 
know it, for he has saved me." This testimony was 
borne by the early Church before kings and gov- 
ernors and wherever they went. 

It is the witnessing Church which is a power in 
any community, in any land. When the Church is 
dumb the devil and the world triumph; but when 
the Church is kept ringing with her clear testimony 
Satan trembles and the powers of darkness are 
alarmed. O w T hat has the world done to hush the 
voice of this testimony ! How it has shut up the 
witnesses in dungeons, banished and driven them to 
the dens and caves of the mountains, sent them in 
chains to work in the mines on dreary islands, and 
crushed them in death in a thousand cruel forms ! 

Tertullian, in his Apology, said to the Pagan 
powers of the world : " We say, and before all men 
we say, and torn and bleeding under your tortures 
we cry out, 'We worship God through Christ/ 
Rend us with your hooks, hang us on crosses, wrap 
us in flames, behead us with the sword, let loose 
wild beasts upon us, the very attitude of the Chris- 
tian in praying is a preparation for all punishment. 
We conquer in dying, and are victorious when sub- 
dued. The flames are our victory robes and our 
triumphal car. . . . Kill us, torture us, con- 



310 SERMONS. 

demn us, grind us to powder. The oftener you mow 
us down the more we grow. The martyr's blood is 
the seed of the Church. When we are condemned 
by you we are acquitted by God." When Justin 
Martyr was arraigned before the heathen prefect he 
asked him " if he expected to ascend to heaven when 
he was beheaded." " I know it," said he ; " beyond 
all power of doubt I know it," and then went rejoic- 
ing to meet his doom. 

Motley tells us in his history of the Dutch 
Republic that so eloquently and effectually did the 
members of the Protestant Churches of Holland 
testify on the scaffold and at the stake that the 
Roman Church resolved, through its " blood coun- 
cil" and the duke of Alva, to put a stop to it. 
And so, before the martyrs were brought forth for 
execution, they took a red-hot ring and put it on 
their tongues, so that they would become so burned, 
inflamed, and swollen they could not speak." But 
still the word of the testimony of the saints of God 
has never been utterly and effectually stifled or 
hushed by the power and fury of the world, inspired 
by Satan. It has, however, come nearer being 
hushed under the influence and power of the world, 
in Pharisaism and formalism, than under all the 
powers of persecuting agencies. 

This world will never be fully subdued to Christ, 
and the power of Satan overthrown, until every one, 
male and female, who names the name of Christ 
shall be a living witness for Christ. Then, in a little 
time, every one will have heard the joyful sound 



THE BLOOD AND THE TESTIMONY. 311 



and felt the subduing power of divine grace. The 
Church and the world wants more witnesses. Not 
more professions, not more forms, not more machin- 
ery, but more ivitnesses. And it can only have the 
witnesses by having the men and women who have 
felt the power of the blood of Christ and the mighty 
baptisms of the Holy Spirit. 

It has been said: "It is better to teach religion 
by our lives than by our words. It is not true. A 
person may be perfectly correct in his outward life 
and not have Christ in his heart. How will we 
know what is within unless words express it? 
Daniel might have walked about Babylon and 
prayed to God in his heart all the day long unmo- 
lested; but he chose to open his window and use 
his voice in prayer and go into the lions' den. The 
apostles might have kept quiet, but they would not 
have been honored with the martyr's crown. The 
large company of believers who received the Holy 
Ghost on the day of Pentecost might have avoided 
much persecution had they withheld their testi- 
mony ; but they went out preaching Jesus — not only 
the apostles, but all the disciples who were scattered 
abroad went everywhere preaching the Gospel. Not 
only the ministers, but all the disciples of Christ 
are called to teach what they know of Jesus. The 
word that Jesus uses is, ' Go ye therefore and teach 
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, 
teaching them to observe whatsoever I command 
you; and, lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the 



312 



SERMONS. 



end of the world/ A minister can not teach that 
which he does not know. He must know the power 
of Christ to save to the uttermost or he can not 
teach it. Preacher and people must proclaim all 
they know of this wonderful salvation."* 

So intent were those referred to in this strife 
that " they loved not their lives unto the death" That 
is, they loved Jesus so much that they would bear 
their testimony for him even if it occasioned their 
death, and that the death of martyrdom. As an 
illustration of this, take the case of Paul. When 
the elders of the Ephesian Church "fell on his 
neck -and wept sore, sorrowing, most of all, that 
they should see his face no more," he replied, in 
language of mingled tenderness and heroism, "What 
mean ye to weep and to break my heart? I am 
not only ready to be bound in Jerusalem, but to die 
for the name of the Lord Jesus." "But none of 
these things move me ; neither count I my life dear 
to me." So they went singing to the dungeon and 
the stake. Jerome went singing to the stake, Salve 
feste dies. Even delicate women and little children, 
rather than deny their Savior, were tortured, beaten 
with rods and thrown to wild beasts. 

And this is the spirit with which Christ's wit- 
nesses are to bear their testimony for him. This 
utterance is true, not only of those who died violent 
deaths, but also of those who now spend their lives 
in the service of Christ. Men and women, who in 
their devotion to Christ's cause are willing to give 

* Dr. Chapman. 



THE BLOOD AND THE TESTIMONY. 313 



up their lives and are ready to sacrifice ease, health, 
worldly interests, reputation, and even life for 
his sake. 

1. Thus has the Church been victorious in all the 
ages. Persecuted, afflicted, tormented, it has con- 
quered in the midst of all these things. Her annals 
are crowded with the heroic deeds of her martyrs 
and confessors, and the Book of Life records their 
heroism and their triumphs. They trusted in the 
blood of the Lamb, and through that blood they 
overcame. They testified of Christ and his salva- 
tion ; and in bearing their testimony they loved not 
their lives even unto death, and they are now wear- 
ing their diadems and waving their palms. 

2. As they have overcome, so may we. The 
same foes are in the field against us this day. Satan 
and his hosts are yet marshaled against the Church 
and the saints in as formidable array as ever. There 
is no abatement in their malice, or hate, or rage. 
And the world is no more friendly to spiritual relig- 
ion to-day than it ever was, nor are sin and death 
less hostile. Their methods of attack may vary, 
but the animus is ever the same. The Christian 
life is still a battle, and it is only conquerors in the 
strife who are crowned. And not only so, it is by 
the same means that we are to overcome. 

No wonder infidelity and Pharisaism and world- 
liness dislike to hear so much about the blood. No 
Avonder that they endeavor to hush the testimony 
of God's saints by death or otherwise, for these are 
the agencies by which they have already been over- 



314 



SERMONS. 



come in many a conflict. And by these the whole 
company of the redeemed shall yet celebrate their 
endless triumphs. 

And O, if we overcome in this strife and gain 
that world of rest, with what rapturous joy we shall 
gaze upon the Lamb that was slain in the midst of 
the throne, and ascribe to him forever the glory of 
our salvation, and the honor of our triumph. All 
our salvation is from him, all our victories are 
through him, and to him be honor and glory forever 
and ever. Amen. 



KINGS AND PRIESTS. 



315 



XVIII. 
KINGS AND PRIESTS. 

Text : " Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins 
in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God 
and his Father ; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. 
Amen" — Eevelation 1, 5-6. 

The Church of the " first-born in heaven," and 
the Church of God upon earth, are joined together 
by the strongest bonds of union, sympathy, and 
relationship. All have been redeemed by the same 
blood, and all ascribe the praise and glory of their 
salvation to the " Lamb that was slain." True, the 
Church above is no longer militant. The period of 
conflict and strife with the powers of earth and hell 
is passed, and it is now triumphant and glorified. 
Freed from the disabilities of this probationary state, 
disencumbered of all the frailties and imperfections 
of the present life, and finally and eternally saved 
in heaven, they dwell, a tearless, sorrowless throng 
in the immediate presence of God and the Lamb. 
Having thus reached a higher state of being and of 
blessedness, a loftier standpoint from which they 
survey the wonders of redemption, their songs of 
praise are sweeter, richer, and more prolonged. But 
the Church on earth, although in the midst of trib- 



316 



SERMONS. 



illation, conflict, and tears, yet blends its song of 
triumph and thanksgiving with that nobler and 
sweeter song. While, then, the saints above sing, 
""Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath 
redeemed us unto God by his blood out of every 
kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hath 
made us unto our God kings and priests the saints 
on earth sing responsively, "Unto him that loved 
us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, 
and hath made us kings and priests." The song is 
one. The joy is one. So close is the union between 
the two great branches of the family of God. 
Naught separates them but the thin veil of mortal- 
ity; naught divides them but "the narrow stream 
of death." That veil is constantly uplifted to admit 
the finally saved to their home and their crown; 
that stream is being crossed at every hour of the 
day and night by the members of Christ's triumph- 
ant hosts. It is quite generally thought that this 
ascription of praise arises from the Church of God 
on earth, and is the burden of their joyful and 
triumphant utterances. Let us analyze this anthem 
as well as join in its strains. 

1. It commemorates the love of Christ to his 
saints, as exhibited in the work which he has 
wrought for them. " Unto him who loved us." This 
was exhibited in his pity and compassion for their 
lost and ruined state. He saw our fall and all its 
fearful and fatal consequences. He saw the wide- 
spread ruin which sin has brought upon the race, 
and the love of his infinite heart moved towards us. 



KINGS AND PRIESTS. 317 

It was this love which led him to undertake the 
work of our redemption, which brought him from 
the throne to the dust, and which sustained him 
throughout the whole period of his humiliation, his 
sufferings, and his death. This love never fainted 
or failed until the last drop and dreg were drained 
from the cup of suffering, which the law and justice 
of God had mingled for him to drink on account of 
our sins. This love was universal. It was not for 
any favored or foreordained class, but for the entire 
race of mankind. Hence a free and a full salvation 
is provided for every soul of man. 

But, here in the text, those who join in this 
song not only celebrate an historical fact, but a 
deep, heartfelt experience. To them this love is 
not only pity and compassion, but it is complacency 
and delight. Multitudes of millions whom Jesus 
loved and died for care nothing for his love and 
make no account of his death. But those who unite 
in this anthem have been justified and washed from 
their sins in his blood, and so are viewed by the 
redeeming Christ with infinite satisfaction and de- 
light. "The Lord loveth his people." He sees in 
them " the travail of his soul and is satisfied." He 
beholds his own image reflected from the transpar- 
ent depths of their blood-washed and sanctified 
spirits. He regards their efforts to love and serve 
him, even amid their frailties and imperfections, 
with satisfaction; and his beneficent smile not only 
lights up life's dreary pathways, but also makes lumi- 
nous even " the valley and the shadow of death." 



318 



SERMONS. 



And who can tell the depths of this love? No 
human or angelic hand holds a line of sufficient 
length to fathom the depths of his love to his saints. 
Hear what he said to his disciples : " As the Father 
hath loved me even so have I loved you." Endless 
ages w^ill never fully reveal to redeemed souls the 
depth of this love. The song not only celebrates 
its depth, but also its eternity and unchangeableness. 
"I have loved thee with an everlasting love, and 
with loving-kindness have I drawn thee." "The 
mountains may depart and the hills be removed, 
but my loving-kindness shall not depart from thee, 
neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, 
saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee." Having 
loved his own that were in the world he loved 
them unto the end. "The mother may forget her 
child and fail to have compassion upon the son of 
her womb," yet he will not forget his loved ones 
whom he has graven on the palms of his dear hands. 
Every thing else may change — worldly relations, 
friendships, wealth may depart, loved ones may die, 
but the love of Jesus changeth not ; it is everlasting. 

" Mine is an unchanging love, 
Higher than the heights above; 
Deeper than the depths beneath ; 
Free and faithful, strong as death." 

One of the sweetest, cheeringest thoughts which 
the child of God has upon earth, and which often- 
est burdens his heart and his song, is, "Jesus loves 
even me." 

2. But growing out ox this love and its brightest 



KINGS AND PRIESTS. 



319 



manifestation is the fact experienced in conscious- 
ness, that "he has washed us from our sins in his 
own blood." We can not overlook, if we would, 
the emphasis with which this song speaks of the 
blood of Christ. The whole book is resonant with 
its praise. We find it here in its opening sentences, 
and as we proceed we hear it from every quarter, 
from the earth and from the skies. All the heav- 
enly hosts sing, " Thou hast redeemed us to God by 
thy blood" and adore the Lamb that was slain. It 
is said of all the innumerable hosts of the redeemed 
that " they washed their robes and made them white 
in the blood of the Lamb." It is by this blood 
that the saints on earth overcome the dragon and 
all the powers of hell. Everywhere it is the Lamb, 
the Lamb slain, the blood of the Lamb. Indeed, 
what would these songs be worth to us without a 
reference to his blood! Neither the glorified saint 
in heaven nor the justified and sanctified believer 
on earth can separate the idea of his salvation from 
the blood of the Lamb. It is only demons, skeptics, 
irreligionists of every grade who dislike this con- 
stant reference to the blood. Here, in the text, the 
emphasis is peculiarly strong and impressive. 

It is "his own blood." The Jewish high priest 
offered the blood of the victims which had been 
slain, but Christ shed his own blood to redeem us, 
and his people are washed from their sins in his 
own blood. The peculiar preciousness and value* of 
that blood are thus presented to us. When John 
wrote of it in his first letter he speaks of the " blood 



320 



SERMONS. 



of Jesus Christ, his Son." Here he sings of "his 
own blood." It is in that our sins are washed away. 
And how confidently they speak of this! In the 
epistle John speaks of it as a possibility, as a priv- 
ilege, conditioned upon our " walking in the light." 
But here it is an experience, it is a fact, patent to 
the consciousness, and so clearly made known, that 
it is spoken of without the slightest hesitation. The 
fact of sin is no clearer to a redeemed soul than the 
fact of salvation. The sins are "ours." They are 
all we have. The blood is "his own blood." And 
no limit is fixed here as to the number or the char- 
acter of our sins. Our sins are washed away in his 
own blood. And if that blood can wash away the 
guilt and the defilement of one sin it can wash 
away that of any conceivable or uncounted number 
of sins. 

Those who sing this song were not better by 
nature than others, or better in their character or 
life. They frankly acknowledge that they are sin- 
ners; they speak of their own sins. They attempt 
no concealment of this fact of their sins. But they 
sing the song because they are redeemed and are 
washed from their sins in Christ's blcod. And this 
cleansing from sin is not only the removal of their 
guilt and the sense of wrath, but the washing away 
of their impurity and defilement. It makes thor- 
ough work with the soul brought and kept under 
its* power. And all this has been realized so clearly 
and so fully that they speak of it without hesitation 
or doubt ; yea, with joyful and rapturous songs. So 



KINGS AND PRIESTS. 



321 



that the historical fact that Christ shed his blood 
and died for us, is linked in the song with the evan- 
gelical and experimental fact, that the blood which 
he shed for us actually does what he designed it 
should do. 

This song, like many of David's psalms, is a 
"song of degrees." The world might sing "Christ 
loved us and died for us," but it is the believer only 
who sings it from experience. The justified soul 
can sing it, because all its actual sins, with all their 
guilt, condemnation, and power, have been washed 
away. The sanctified believer sings it, because the 
blood has not only washed away its guilt and 
power, but also because it has washed away the 
filthiness of the flesh and spirit, the spots and stains 
of sin. And the glorified saint sings it because he 
has not only been saved from guilt and wrath and 
defilement and impurities, but saved from the im- 
perfections and disabilities which sin has occasioned 
in his mental, spiritual, and physical nature and 
saved from all the consequences of sin in eternity. 
So the song rises, from the feeblest babe in Christ 
to the maturest saint, through all the grades of 
Christian experience in the Church on earth until 
it mingles with the ringing anthems of the redeemed 
and glorified in heaven. 

3. Now, then, these redeemed, blood-washed 
souls are constituted, in virtue of their character 
and their relations to Christ as "the Prince of the 
kings of the earth," kings and priests unto God. 
Some render the text " hath made us a kingdom of 



322 



SERMONS. 



priests." This really means the same thing. When 
we speak of American citizens we sometimes say: 
" We are a nation of sovereigns." So this is a king- 
dom of kings as well as a kingdom of priests. All 
are the children of the King of kings. Adopted 
into his family, they have become " heirs of God 
and joint heirs with Jesus Christ." God, our Father, 
is the absolute ruler, as well as owner, of the illim- 
itable universe, of unnumbered worlds. His saints 
are his children, and in virtue of their relation to 
him they are kings. The reign now is spiritual, 
and as long as we are in this world the dignity and 
power of the office are only partially and imperfectly 
realized. There is a higher state, a vaster empire, 
where, seated upon the throne with Christ, they 
shall reign for ever and ever. 

But God's saints are kings now and here. In 
w^hat sense is this true? Over what do they reign? 
I answer, They reign over themselves. Each man is 
in himself a kingdom, a world. What a vast realm 
is the human mind, with all its powers, relations, 
resources, and possibilities! No wonder that the 
poet has said: "My mind to me a kingdom is." 
What powers are employed and controlled by the 
conscious ego — memory with all its stores, imag- 
ination with all its fancies, reason with all its 
subtle processes, understanding with its wide reach 
and grasp of things, the will with its godlike pow- 
ers, and the affections w T ith all their wealth of kind- 
ness, sympathy, and love! Then, too, what a 
wonderful realm is this body, with all its parts and 



KINGS AND PRIESTS. 



323 



powers ! The brain, heart, lungs, muscles, ligaments, 
tendons, veins, arteries, all, all in this wide realm 
of God\s kings made subservient to man, his use, 
his comfort, his happiness, and usefulness. Over 
the unpardoned, unregenerate man sin reigns, reigns 
over his soul and over his body ; it is obeyed in 
"the affections and in the lusts thereof." But in 
the redeemed soul " grace reigns through righteous- 
ness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." 
The sanctified, grace-empowered ego sits like an 
enthroned monarch, guiding, controlling, governing 
thoughts, purposes, words, actions, bodily move- 
ments, the whole being. There can be no doubt 
that he who conquers and reigns over his own spirit 
is a greater conqueror than Alexander, Caesar, or 
Napoleon, and a mightier king than the proudest 
earthly monarch. 

They reign over the world. " This is the victory 
which overcometh the world, even your faith." 
They reign over its pride and pomp, its smiles and 
frowns, its malice and rage, its scoffs and scorns, its 
maxims and pursuits, its trials and persecutions. 
Although in the sight of mortals "poor, yet they 
make many rich; having nothing, yet they possess 
all things; sorrowful, yet they are always rejoicing." 
Clothed in rags, hunted to the dens and caves of 
the mountains, to them belongs a more potent scepter 
than earthly monarch ever swayed, and a brighter 
crown than earthly monarch ever wore. A mightier 
guard than ever surrounded the tent or palace of 
the crowned kings of earth is in constant attendance 

28 



324 



SERMONS. 



upon them, and they are secure, although " the earth 
should be removed and the mountains carried into 
the midst of the sea." 

i 'So wretched and obscure, 

The men whom you despise, 
So foolish, weak and poor, — 

Above your scorn we rise. 
Our conscience in the Holy Ghost 

Can witness better things ; 
For he whose blood is all our boast, 

Hath made us priests and kings. 

Angels our servants are, 

And keep in all our ways, 
And in their hands they bear 

The sacred sons of grace : 
Our guardians to that heavenly bliss, 

They all our steps attend; 
And God himself our Father is, 

And Jesus is our friend." 

— John Wesley. 

They also reign over Satan and sin. " They 
overcame him/' the dragon, the old serpent, who is 
the devil, "by the blood of the Lamb and by the 
word of their testimony." Paul, writing to the 
Romans, says: "And the God of peace shall bruise 
Satan under your feet shortly." In every conflict 
with these powers of darkness "they are more than 
conquerors through him that loved them." And 
"sin has no more dominion over them," but they 
are conquerors over it. They have been delivered 
^rom it; it has been cast out; and their triumph in 
Christ is complete. They have received the abun- 
dance of grace and of the gift of righteousness and 
reign in life by one — Jesus Christ. "Where sin 



KINGS AND PRIESTS. 



325 



abounded now grace abounds much more; that as 
sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace 
reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus 
Christ our Lord." Sin and Satan are enemies of 
God and of his saints; but as Christ rules in the 
midst of his enemies, so his people reign with him. 

Finally, they reign over death. This enemy of 
Christ and of our redeemed humanity has been so 
thoroughly conquered by our elder brother that he 
no longer has any terror or alarm to his people. 
To the eye of their faith his scepter is shivered, his 
crown crushed, and his throne trembling to. its deep 
foundations. In the catalogue of the effects belong- 
ing to his saints Paul says: " Death is yours." He 
has now become a servant, and often a smiling 
friend. He is no more the king of terrors, the 
frightful monster, since Jesus, King of kings and 
Lord of lords, conquered him and dragged him in 
chains behind his triumphal chariot. Physically, it 
is true, the change called death passes over the true 
Christian as well as the vilest sinner. But really 
he never dies. He simply falls asleep in Jesus, to 
awake beautified and glorified on the resurrection 
morn. I have said he is the servant of God's saints. 
And so he is. He takes down the earthly house of 
this tabernacle, and lets the disimprisoned soul go 
out, free and unfettered, to the heavenly world. 
He takes off the bedusted and travel-worn robes of 
the pilgrim and admits him to his long-sought rest. 
He unbuckles the armor of the Christian soldier 
and introduces him to his everlasting reward. 



326 



SERMONS. 



So in the higher, spiritual realm, believers in 
Christ, children of God, now reign. But the time 
is coming on when they will be fully and formally 
inducted into their kingdoms. Their coronation 
day is coming on. Then, before an assembled uni- 
verse, he who has all might and dominion and 
majesty and glory will say: "Come in, ye blessed 
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for 
you from the foundation of the world." "Well 
done, good and faithful servant; thou, hast been 
faithful over a few things; I will make thee ruler 
over many things." How wondrously strange it 
must have sounded in the ears of the humble dis- 
ciples when their Lord and Master said to them: 
" Ye are they which have continued with me in my 
temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, 
as my Father hath appointed unto me ; that ye may 
eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit 
on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." All 
that is meant by this and kindred promises we may 
not fully know now, but we shall know hereafter. 

But not only are they "kings, they are also 
priests unto God." Peter calls believers — all believ- 
ers — " a royal priesthood," or, as some render it, " a 
kingdom of priests." In this the apostles did not 
design to lay any special claims for themselves as a 
mediating power, with the sole prerogative of offer- 
ing up sacrifices to God. No ; " they were very far 
from placing themselves in a relation to believers 
which bore any resemblance to a mediating priest- 
hood. In this respect they always placed themselves 



KINGS AND PRIESTS. 



327 



on a footing of equality. If Paul assured the 
Church of his intercessory prayer for them, he in 
return requested their prayers." Neander well says : 
" This idea of the Gospel, the priesthood of all 
Christians, proceeding from the consciousness of 
redemption, and grounded alone in that, is partly 
stated and developed in express terms, and partly 
presupposed in the epithets, images, and compari- 
sons applied to, the Christian life." 

No Christian, no matter what grade he may 
have in the ministry, or what attainments he may 
have made in experience, can offer up any expi- 
atory sacrifice, any meritorious offering to God. 
But while there are points of resemblance in the 
Jewish high priesthood to the great high priesthood 
of Jesus Christ, and which are only fulfilled in him, 
there are others in the priests of the old dispensa- 
tion which illustrate the character and office of all 
true Christians. For instance, the priests of the 
law cast away their old garments; their bodies were 
washed, and they were clothed with new and befit- 
ting robes. So we are to cast away our sins and 
self-righteousness, have our " hearts sprinkled from 
an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure 
water" and to be clothed with the pure blood- 
washed robes. They were anointed with the holy oil ; 
so we must be anointed with the Holy Spirit. Their 
whole life was devoted to the service of the Lord ; 
so must ours be. They were to keep the fire always 
burning on the altar; so we must keep the fire of 
love always burning upon the altar of our hearts. 



328 



SERMONS. 



They were always to keep the golden lamps sup- 
plied with oil, and to see that "they were ever burn- 
ing; so our lamps should ever be kept filled with 
the oil of grace and brightly burning as we await 
the coming of our Lord. 

These and other points may illustrate the Chris- 
tian priesthood of the saints; but no further than 
this can they go. Our great High Priest has offered 
one sacrifice forever — so perfect, so complete, so 
infinite in merit, that no other can be offered again. 
Now Christians are all a "holy priesthood to offer 
up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through 
Christ." They offer up themselves through Christ. 
So Paul beseeches his brethren at Rome to offer up 
their bodies "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to 
God, which is your reasonable service." So they 
offer sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving. "They 
offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare his works 
with rejoicing." "They offer the sacrifice of praise 
continually, the fruit of their lips, giving thanks 
unto his name." So, also, they offer up the sacrifice 
and Service of a holy, consecrated life. "To do 
good and to communicate forget not; for with such 
sacrifices God is well pleased." Thus when Paul 
himself had received from the Church at Philippi 
a contribution for the supply of his temporal wants 
he writes: "I have all, and abound; I am full, hav- 
ing received of Epaphroditus the things which were 
sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice 
acceptable and well-pleasing to God." All our 
ministrations to God's ministers and saints are sacri- 



KINGS AXD PRIESTS. 



329 



fices in the sight of God, offered up through Jesus 
Christ. All our contributions to his cause, to his 
Church, and to humanity are so regarded by him — 
not meritorious in themselves, but acceptable through 
the one great sacrifice of Jesus Christ. 

But Ave are also, as the priests of Christ, to pre- 
sent our substance as well as ourselves. Every 
thing is to be brought and laid upon the altar of 
sacrifice. The profession of full salvation through 
Christ has been, not unfrequently, marred and val- 
ueless because it has been evident to careful observ- 
ers that the property had not been consecrated to 
God. But the law of Christian sacrifice and Chris- 
tian priesthood demands the surrender of alt The 
consecration of our property is as important in the 
sight of God as the consecration of ourselves. In 
coming to God's altar to sacrifice we must bring 
" our silver and our gold with us," our stocks and 
bonds, our mortgages and money, our houses and 
lands, all our worldly interests. O, if this consecra- 
tion were only made to Christ, how soon this world 
would be redeemed! O, it is sacrifice, priestly sacri- 
fice, to give, as well as to sing and praise and pray ! 
When the Master, the Judge comes and sits upon 
his throne, he will say: " Inasmuch as ye have done 
it" — fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the 
sick and the prisoner — " to one of these, the least 
of my disciples, ye have done it unto me. Enter 
into the joy of thy Lord." There we shall stand and 
minister in his courts forever, offering sacrifices of 
thanksgiving and praise long as the eternal ages roll. 



330 



SERMONS. 



4. Let us dwell a little while on this ascription 
of dominion and glory to Christ. If this is well- 
founded, if Christ is worthy of it, he is divine. No 
mere creature, however exalted, could have such an 
ascription rendered to him. And it is to the Lamb, 
the once crucified Christ who shed his blood and 
died, that the whole Church upon earth and the 
whole Chrrfch in heaven offer this song. There is 
no other being in the universe to whom it belongs. 
Not to men, not to angels. I say it with reverence, 
not to the Father. To Christ, the Lamb of God, 
belongs the glory of our redemption. To the Father 
belongs the glory of "so loving the world that he 
gave his Son" to die; to the Spirit belongs the 
glory of the " Executive of the Godhead " in the 
great work of saving men ; but to Jesus, Jesus only, 
belongs the glory of our redemption by the shedding 
of his own blood. 

But not only so. To him belongs the glory of 
washing us from our sins in his own blood, thus 
effecting our actual salvation with all the bliss which 
it comprises. So he has not only shed his blood, 
but w r e are cleansed in it from all sin. O wonder- 
ful redemption! O wonderful efficacy of Christ's 
blood ! No wonder that the heavens are kept ring- 
ing day and night, forever and ever with these glad, 
rapturous ascriptions of glory to the Lamb! To 
him, further, belongs the glory of our eternal salva- 
tion. "He is the author of eternal salvation to all 
who obey him." " He is able to save them to the 
uttermost," not only perfectly, but also eternally, 



KINGS AND PRIESTS. 



331 



"who come to God by him." Long as eternal ages 
roll, the efficacy of his blood and the power of his 
salvation will be recognized and praised by all the 
hosts of the redeemed. To him "dominion" is also 
ascribed. He is "King of kings and Lord of 
Lords." "On his head are many crowns." He is 
the creator, upholder, and ruler of the universe. 
No atom or world in the vast and limitless immens- 
ity is beyond his guidance and control. "All power 
is given unto him in heaven and in earth." He 
reigns over the vast empire of materialism in all 
its forms and in all its developments. He reigns, 
also, over the world of mind — angel and archangel, 
seraphim and cherubim, redeemed and glorified 
spirits and redeemed saints on earth, in the midst 
of his enemies, and over all the dreary regions of the 
damned, where Satan and demons and lost souls 
tremble at the sound of his voice. O, to him belongs 
dominion as A\ell as power and glory! Let us, 
therefore, 

"Bring forth the royal diadem 
And crown him Lord of all." 

And he shall reign for ever and ever. "His 
kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his domin- 
ion is throughout all generations. It is said that 
when the great English composer was arranging his 
Halleluiah chorus he was interrupted by a visitor, 
who found him at his desk writing his music to the 
marvelous words. The streaming tears were rolling 
down his cheeks as his music was prepared for the 
Avords, "He shall reign for ever and ever, halle- 

29 



332 



SERMONS. 



luiah! He shall reign for ever and ever!" And 
still lie wrote on, " He shall reign for ever and ever, 
ever and ever, halleluiah! He shall reign for ever 
and ever, halleluiah !" " The Lord God omnipotent 
reigneth !" 

Look at the multitudes who sing this song. 
They are all the unnumbered millions who have 
been redeemed from the earth, " a great and count- 
less throng." The song was begun by them on 
earth, and continued in the heaven of heavens. 
There are apostles, martyrs, representatives of every 
nation, kingdom, kindred, tongue, and people. All 
join this song. And millions are now singing it 
upon the earth. Amid all its corruptions, abom- 
inations, infidelities, false religions, blasphemies, 
agitations, and alarms, more hearts and more voices 
are joining in this song to-day than ever before. 
And the time hastens on when, as Cowper sang, 

"One song employs all nations; and all cry, 
'Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us!' 
The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks 
Shout to each other, and the mountain tops 
From distant mountains catch the flying joy, 
Till nation after nation taught the strain, 
Earth rolls the rapturous hosanna round." 

It is a matter of interest to us also to glance, 
and we can do no more, at the throng of redeemed 
saints who have joined this song. Paul and Silas 
in the Philippian dungeon, John on the isle of Pat- 
mos, the prisoner in the mines, loaded with chains, 
martyrs in the dungeon, at the stake, on the rack, 
in the amphitheater, in den, and in mountain caves ; 



KINGS AND PRIESTS. 



333 



persecuted, afflicted, tormented, hunted like beasts 
of prey, driven into exile, their goods confiscated, 
their dwellings burned, and their children butchered 
before their eyes, have sung this song. It has been 
heard swelling up from the dwellings of poverty, 
from garret and from cellar, from asylum and alms- 
house, from the sick-bed of the sufferer and the 
dying one, and not unfrequently from the palaces 
of the great and the mansions of the rich. So the 
song is rising. So saints in spirit join in its sublime 
utterances. It is said that Mrs. Phoebe Palmer, 
that saintly and now glorified woman, was accus- 
tomed, in her later years, each morning to take the 
words of this song, and in spirit join with all the 
saints of God on earth and in heaven. Beautiful 
exercise! Blessed preparation to sing it in the 
heavens ! 

O, shall we join in that " nobler and sweeter 
song ?" Shall we mingle our shout with that of the 
redeemed and glorified ? This all depends upon the 
answer to another question, Are we singing it now? 
Have we the conscious experience of being " washed 
in his own blood," which is the basis, the substance, 
of the song? O, if we have been washed in his 
blood, if we have been made kings and priests unto 
God, then we can sing the song now and here. In 
joy and sorrow, health and sickness, poverty and 
plenty, in life and in death, we can sing the song. 
And thus, beginning it on earth, and continuing 
the strain, louder and sweeter as the months and 
years go by, we shall sing the new song in the 



334 



SERMONS. 



heavens. O, it will not seem strange to us to cross 
over the border-line to where the glorified dwell, 
and join at once with nobler powers, unencumbered 
with earthly frailties and infirmities, our eyes un- 
dimmed with tears, no discord in our voice, nor 
shadow of death hovering near, in singing, " Salva- 
tion to our God which sitteth upon the throne and 
unto the Lamb !" 

But O, dying sinner, unless you are washed in 
the blood of the Lamb, you can never sing this 
song. You would be out of place in heaven could 
you get there. You would be dumb with silence 
amid the everlasting harmonies; you would shrink 
from the presence of an infinitely holy God, and 
from the pure, holy beings, angels and glorified 
saints, which stand before his throne. What would 
you, what could you, say then? O, heaven itself 
would be turned to an intolerable hell if your sins 
and guilt and impurities, unpardoned, or unwashed 
away, remained upon you ! Haste, then, to the 
fountain, and "wash your robes and make them 
white in the blood of the Lamb." To-morrow it 
may he forever too late. 



FILLED WITH CHRIST'S FULLNESS. 335 



XIX. 

PILLED WITH THE FULLNESS OF 
CHRIST. 

Text: "For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead 
bodily. And ye are complete in him which is the head of all 
principality and power." — Colossians ii, 9, 10. 

There is a conscious emptiness, unsatisfaction, 
want of something which it has not, in every human 
soul. This is evidenced by the outreachings, the 
longings, the aspirations, and unrest which men ex- 
hibit in seeking something higher, nobler, better. 
These soul-longings are often misunderstood, and, 
consequently, our efforts are often misdirected, and 
a whole life-time is expended in vain and fruitless 
endeavor. Many are governed and controlled by 
mere animal instincts and passions, and are ever 
groveling in the dust of low, and even bestial, ap- 
petites. Others are swayed by the proclivities of 
their fallen and corrupt nature, which lead them 
into a life of sin and rebellion against God. Others 
still are endeavoring to fill up the mighty, aching 
void of the heart with the unsatisfying pleasures of 
the world and sin. 

The real secret of all this unrest is, Man has lost 
his God. The human soul, fitted up for the dwell- 



336 



SERMONS. 



ing-place of God, and all its capacities originally 
filled up with his presence, has banished him from 
all the chambers of its thought, its affection, its 
understanding, and volitional powers. Thus emptied 
of God, it has looked restlessly through the universe 
for something to fill up its awful chasms and satisfy 
its yearning desires. Accustomed to an outspread 
table of infinite beneficence, it now would fain sat- 
isfy its hunger with the husks of the world's fur- 
nishing. But, however appropriate husks may be 
for swine, they are entirely unsuited for souls. Thus 
reduced to spiritual beggary, covered with the vilest 
robes or the thinnest rags, with eternal hunger, like 
the Promethean vulture, gnawing at its vitals, its 
wretchedness and misery are often inconceivable. 
And yet in this condition many live and many die. 
So many enter an eternity, the character and source 
of whose misery are expressed in the words, " ban- 
ishment from God." 

But this need not be so. After all man's sin 
and rebellion, God in Christ is ever seeking to win 
him back to his allegiance, to reinstate him in his 
family, and to return and reoccupy his own former 
dwelling-place. In his infinite love of pity and 
compassion he has made ample provision by which 
every barrier may be removed, the accumulated sins 
and guilt of a life-time, with all their uncleanness, 
may be removed from his soul, and that, pardoned, 
purified, restored, and reconstructed, it may be 
6 'filled with all the fullness of God." This is the 
great theme which the apostle here is laboring to 



FILLED WITH CHRIST'S FULLNESS. 337 



express. These dwellers in Colosse, who had been 
" alienated and enemies in their minds by wicked 
works/' "dead in sins/' and walked in all manner 
of wickedness, had been reconciled, had received 
Christ, and " with him were risen and in him were! 
complete." So the text reads, "In him dwelletli 
all the fullness \_pleromct\ of the Godhead; and ye 
are complete \_pepleromenoi\ } filled up with him." 
In other words, All the fullness of the Godhead is 
in Christ, and believers are filled up with him. This 
is our theme. 

I. The revealed evangelical fact here stated is 
that "In Christ Dwelleth all the Fullness 
of the Godhead bodily." 

The words employed by the apostle in the first 
chapter to express the supreme divinity of Christ 
are truly wonderful. He "is the image of the in- 
visible God, the first-born of every creature; by 
him all things were created that are in heaven and 
that are in earth, visible and invisible, thrones, 
dominions, principalities, and powers; all things 
were created by him and for him ; and he is before 
all things, and by him all things consist. For it 
pleased the Father that in him should all fullness 
dwell." It is thus made clearly evident that Christ 
possesses all the perfections of God, and that the 
glory and works of God are ascribed to him. All 
this fullness he had before his incarnation; all are 
manifested corporeally in his present glorified body. 
Let us, if we may, particularize a little. 

1. In him dwelleth the fullness of life. "In him," 



338 



SERMONS. 



says John, "was life,;" absolutely, inherently, unde- 
rivedly, and eternally. He is the prince or author 
"of life." He is the life. So all existence, all life 
in the universe is from him, from that of the first 
archangel to the crawling worm, and the thousand 
forms of almost invisible insect-life around us. He 
came into the w T orld to bring life to our fallen and 
spiritually dead race. "I have come that they 
might have life, and have it more abundantly." 
And in order that the life which was in him, in all 
its eternal fullness, might come to us, he died, and 
thus broke down the barriers which otherwise would 
have forever prevented its flow to man. Provision 
w r as thus made for the connection, the reunion, of 
the soul with God through him, so that this full- 
ness might be imparted to all who believe. So we 
see that life eternal is in Christ, and that life eter- 
nal may be in us. 

2. In him is the fullness of love. The boundless 
love of the Father dAvells also in the Son. He is 
all compassion. He is pure, boundless love. The 
same amazing love which led the Father to give up 
his only-begotten Son, influenced the Son to give 
himself a ransom for many. The highest love he 
could show to humanity and to the universe was 
seen in the fact that he laid down his life for a race 
of dying and rebellious sinners. Such love has kept 
all the harps in heaven ringing for untold ages; 
and it has filled the bosom of every believer with 
songs of gratitude and joy. The song begins with, 
"Unto him that loved us," and it is continued 



FILLED WITH CHRIST'S FULLNESS. 339 



through all the heaven of heavens. But how can a 
worm speak of such measureless, boundless love? 
All the harps and songs of heaven can not express 
it, and eternity will never fully reveal it. When I 
attempt to think of it, it overwhelms me. I am 
lost in the bottomless, boundless, shoreless ocean. I 
feel like calling, with the psalmist, upon all inan- 
imate nature, its fields and floods, its mountains and 
vales, its hills and plains, its suns and stars, to 
break their lasting silences and help me to tell of 
it. Yes, and all animate nature too — every bird 
of every wing and song, all the finny tribes of the 
waters and scaly monsters of the deep, all beasts of 
forest and field, and all intelligences in the universe, 
to praise him in whom dwelleth all this fullness of 
love. But if all were thus to praise him, if a uni- 
verse of universes were vocal with songs of joy, and 
all blending with the ceaseless songs of angels and 
glorified spirits, still 

"His love could ne'er be told." 

3. In him is the fullness of poiver. While still 
his footsteps pressed the Mount of Ascension and 
his chariots were standing near to escort him to 
his heavenly home, he said: "All power is given 
unto me in heaven and in earth." To him belongs, 
and to him are ascribed, "power, dominion, glory, 
and wisdom and might." He is "'King of kings 
and Lord of lords." He has " power over all flesh." 
He is " Lord both of the living and the dead." He 
not only created all things, but "he upholds them 



340 



SERMONS. 



by the word of his power." While the fullness of 
the Godhead was in him bodily upon the earth, 
how wondrously that power was displayed! His 
mighty works revealed the fullness of his power. 
This will be also displayed in the last day, when he 
shall raise the dead from their graves, and beautify 
the bodies of his saints, " fashioning them like unto 
his own glorious body, according to the mighty 
working whereby he is able even to subdue all 
things to himself." 

4. In him also is the fullness of salvation. The 
salvation which is in Christ is infinite in its extent 
and its duration. If sinners were as numberless 
as the sands upon the shore of the ocean, as the 
stars in the vault of heaven, as leaves in the forest, 
as blades of grass on mountain, valley, and hill, 
or as atoms in the universe, there is salvation in 
Christ for all. If Christ is an infinite Savior, 
and his salvation is an infinite salvation, then 
no enumeration which men or angels could make 
could fix the limit of numbers beyond which there 
is no provision of salvation. It is also infinite in 
duration. Ten thousand thousand ages will not ex- 
haust it, but as they pass away they will only show 
how vast and infinite are the depths which are yet 
to be fathomed, the heights which are yet to be 
scaled, and the breadths which are yet to be traversed. 
So the Word of the Lord speaks of this salvation 
in Christ. While there is no other Savior, "nor 
is there salvation in any other name given under 
heaven," yet in him there is an eternal fullness. 



FILLED WITH CHRIST'S FULLNESS. 341 



"He is able to save to the uttermost." "His name 
was called Jesus, because he would save his people 
from their sins." " He is the author of eternal sal- 
vation to all who obey him." Yes, he is a perfect 
Savior. His rich provisions and promises reach to 
the deepest depths of depravity, of sin, and guilt; 
they oversweep the highest mountains of corruption 
and iniquity; they embrace the highest heaven of 
blessedness, glory, and joy, and roll on with cease- 
less and ever-increasing flow throughout the eternal 
ages, while they sweep hard by the burning gates 
of an endless hell. No sinner has sinned so long, 
so grievously, or aggravatedly, but that, if he will 
come to Christ, he may find pardon; no depravity is 
so deep, dark, and damning; no spot of corruption 
so crimson, or of guilt so scarlet-dyed, but his blood 
can wash it all away. O the fullness, the fullness 
♦of Christ's salvation! 

5. In him also is a fullness of peace and joy. 
These are in him in infinite fullness. Eternal bless- 
edness, eternal peace must be in an infinitely holy 
God. Hence we read of the "peace of God which 
passeth all understanding " — that deep, settled, ever- 
lasting calm, that unruffled serenity which God 
enjoys. It is just such a peace as worlds can not 
buy, but which is in Christ for the humblest be- 
liever. When Jesus was about to leave the world 
he left a legacy to his people. It was such a one 
as no earthly prince or potentate could have devised. 
None of the great, the honorable, or the wealthy of 
this world had ever left such a testament. And no 



342 



SEIiMOXS. 



one could have done it. For it was not kingdoms 
or crowns or scepters, or gold or silver or estates, or 
titles and dignities, or stocks and bonds, but it was 
peace which he ieft. " Peace I leave with you ; my 
peace give I unto you; not as the world giveth give 
I unto you." It was not merely peace with him, 
nor peace by him, but his own peace which he gave. 

In him . there is fullness of joy. In his " pres- 
ence there is fullness of joy, and at his right hand 
there are pleasures forevermore." His kingdom is 
not only " righteousness and peace, but also joy in 
the Holy Ghost." This is a "joy which is unspeak- 
able and full of glory." It is "the joy of the 
Lord," of which we read in the Divine Word. I 
have said that Jesus left his people a legacy of 
peace; let me say, further, he left them also a legacy 
of joy, of fullness of joy. "These things have I 
spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you, 
and that your joy might he full" And in his inter- 
cessory prayer he asks, " that they may have my joy 
fulfilled" — pepleromenen, the same word as that 
used in the text, — " in themselves." It must have 
seemed strange to hear " the Man of sorrows," on his 
way to the scourging, the crown of thorns, and the 
cross, speak of his joy — not only sufficient for him- 
self, but enough to fill up a universe of his servants 
in all the coming ages. But no doubt beneath his 
suffering and sorrow was the deep, unutterable, 
and everlasting joy of God. So we see that all 
fullness dw r ells in Christ. And it is all in him for 
us, for every one who believes in him. May we all 



FILLED WITH CHRIST'S FULLNESS. 343 



receive it while we read these words. This leads 
me to notice that 

II. All true believers are filled with 

THIS FULLXESS. 

" Ye are complete," filled up with him, says the 
apostle. We have already glanced at the utter 
emptiness and incompleteness of man. Nor has he 
any resources with which he can meet his own felt 
wants and necessities. He must look without and 
beyond himself for those supplies for which his 
deathless nature longs. But he looks through all 
the universe in vain until his weary eye rests upon 
Christ, the Redeemer, Savior, the everlasting all of 
his people. Look at the fact. 

1. That every believer is made partaker of this 
fullness. True, we can not have the fullness of the 
attributes or perfections of the divine nature, but 
we may be u filled with [unto] all the fullness of 
God." Hence the beloved John says : u Of his full- 
ness have all we received, and grace for grace." Paul 
prays for the Ephesians that they " might be filled 
with all the fullness of God." These Scriptures are 
sufficient to prove what I have stated. Of course, 
there are different degrees, according to the capacity 
of the child of God, in the enjoyment of this full- 
ness. But we may all be filled up. For instance, 
there is a fullness of light and heat in the sun, and 
every part of the solar system feels their power. 
The remotest star in the system is warmed and illu- 
mined by his beams. The meek flower's cup is 
filled with the life he brings. The wing of even 



344 



SERMONS. 



the tiniest insect flashes in his bright rays. All 
the eyes in the world are filled with his light, the 
mountain-peaks are tipped w r ith his fire, and the 
crested waves of the ocean are crimsoned with his 
brightness. It shines as cheerily in the cot of pov- 
erty as in the mansions and palaces of the great 
and wealthy. The ocean has also a fullness of 
waters which covers all its channels, and which in 
the motion of its tides fills up every bay and river 
and creek with an overflowing fullness. 

So Jesus is the light of the world, shining upon 
every believer's heart, illuminating the cradle, the 
tomb, and the eternity of childhood, and flooding 
the soul of the saint with his heavenly radiance. 
He, too, is the boundless sea of love, and peace and 
joy, and he pours himself into the soul of the be- 
liever, filling all its powers with his own fullness, 
and flooding the heaven of heavens with his glory 
and joy. Rutherford, in one of his inimitable let- 
ters, writes as follows: "A river of God's unseen 
joys hath flowed from bank to brae over my scral 
since I parted with you." 

2. The fullness which is in Christ meets and sat- 
isfies all the wants of our immortal nature. By nature 
we are "dead in trespasses and in sins." Hence 
we need a new, divine life, a resurrection-life, up- 
springing in our souls. Now Christ is "the resur- 
rection and the life" for dead souls as well as for 
dead bodies. And when his life is brought into 
contact with our dead souls there is a moral, a spir- 
itual resurrection, and a new life tingles and throbs 



FILLED WITH CHRIST'S FULLNESS. 345 



and thrills through every avenue of our being. 
Hence it is said: " He that believeth on the Son of 
God hath everlasting life." So Paul exclaimed as 
he felt the pulsations of this life. "I live; yet not 
I [I live no longer]; but Christ liveth in me." 
Jesus came that all who believe in him "might 
have life more abundantly." He gave himself up 
to suffering and death ; that the world " might not 
perish but have everlasting life." So with the full- 
ness of his love. " God is love, and he that dwelleth 
in love dwelleth in God and God in him." O the 
boundless, boundless ocean of Christ's love. And 
even the tender est babe in Christ, according to the 
measure of his capacity and of his faith, partakes of 
this fullness, while the more enlarged and vigorous 
the faith, the deeper the soul plunges into this 
"bottomless abyss." So it will be all along life's 
weary pilgrimage ; so it will be forever and ever in 
the heavenly world. 

The believer is also filled with the fullness of 
his power. In himself he is all weakness, helpless- 
ness, and nothingness; but he who is filled with 
Christ is filled with power. " I can do all things," 
said Paul, "through Christ, who strengthened me." 
So he gladly " gloried in his infirmities that the 
power of Christ might rest upon him." So he says 
all believers "are strengthened with all might, ac- 
cording to Christ's glorious power." Hence they are 
strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, 
"He gives power to the weak, and to them that 
have no might he increaseth strength." He gives 



346 



SERMONS. 



power to witness for him, to overcome the world 
and self and sin, and the last enemy — death. What 
matters it if I am so weak and helpless, since, if 
Christ strengthen me, I am more than a match for 
all my enemies. In a word, "I can do all things 
through Christ strengthening me." I am "more 
than a conqueror through him that hath loved me." 

But I am a sinner and need salvation. "What 
must I do to be saved?" Just what I need I find 
in Christ in all its fullness. In him there is "plen- 
teous redemption." In him there is full, complete 
pardon, complete justification, complete holiness, 
complete victory over death and the grave, com- 
plete deliverance from the second death, and com- 
plete salvation in eternity. All this fullness of 
salvation is for every believer, every moment of his 
being, and all this salvation every believer enjoys 
in a measure. The moment the soul believes it is 
saved, saved from sin, its guilt, power, and condem- 
nation; when one believes for full salvation, in that 
moment the blood of Christ cleanseth him from all 
sin ; and if he continues to believe he will be saved 
eternally. O, it is his blood-purchased righteous- 
ness which is put on by faith, in which we shall 
stand before God. perfect and complete. This full 
salvation is our preparation for heaven, and our 
passport through its gates of pearl into its everlast- 
ing mansions. Clad in this "all-perfect, heavenly 
dress," no death-terrors shall alarm us, no victory 
of the grave will be known tp us, no trumpet-blast 
of the archangel will send a thrill of terror through 



FILLED WITH CHRIST'S FULLNESS. 347 



our souls upon the resurrection morn, no deathless 
worm will ever entwine his tightening coil around 
us, and no fire-sheet of helPs agony will ever en- 
wrap us. We are saved in Jesus, and w^e shall be 
safe in him. He will complete the whole work, 
for he has bought back the whole of our forfeited 
inheritance. And when he has placed a crown upon 
every brow, and a white robe on every saint, and a 
harp and palm in their, hands, as they shall stand 
exulting before the everlasting throne, then salva- 
tion will be complete, and the song which celebrates 
it will also be complete. 

It is thus with the fullness of peace and joy 
which are in him. All are ours. " My peace I give 
unto you." And, O, how Jesus does give peace ! 
How full and free, how glorious and abundant ! It 
floweth from him "like a river." Believers "are 
filled with all peace and joy in their trusting." 
This, too, is a "perfect peace." It is satisfactory, 
it is indestructible, it is eternal. Right here in the 
midst of the turmoil and unrest, amid the tumults 
and ragings of the world and Satan, in the midst of 
tribulation, this perfect peace comes into the soul. 
In the world there is tribulation, but in Christ there 
is peace. This is a mixed state, this world of pro- 
bation. And so God's saints are "sorrowful, yet 
always rejoicing," suffering, yet having the joy of the 
Lord for their strength; in tribulation, yet "rejoic- 
ing in hope of the glory of God." But soon the 
morning will break and earth's dim shadows will 

flee away forever. When "the ransomed of the 

30 



348 



SERMONS. 



Lord return and come again to Zion, with songs 
and everlasting joy upon their heads, they shall ob- 
tain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall 
flee away." Then there will be joy without a sor- 
row or a sigh or a sob or a tear or a headache or a 
heartache — pure, perennial, eternal joy. 

I don't know what it will be up there, but I 
know that here it is ofttimes as much as the thin 
veil of flesh and blood will hold. Mr. Fletcher 
informs us that once he was so filled with the full- 
ness of Christ that he feared "the vessel would 
break," and he prayed the Lord to withhold his 
hand. But he said, afterward, that he ought rather 
to have prayed the Lord to enlarge the vessel. 
Hence the frequency with which he ever afterward 
sang — 

"Stretch my faith's capacity 
Wider and yet wider still; 
Then, with all that is in thee, 
My soul forever fill." 

If, then, we are filled up with Christ, we have 
all we want in him and with him. Here many 
make a mistake. They are seeking for power or 
for joy or for comfort, but if they would only seek 
Christ they would have all in him. So Rutherford 
says : " I would fain learn not to idolize comfort, 
sense, joy, and sweet-felt presence. All these are 
but creatures, and nothing but the kingly robe, the 
gold ring, and the bracelets of the Bridegroom; the 
Bridegroom himself is better than all the ornaments 
that are about him." O, if we would only open our 
hearts and let Christ come in and fill them full of 



FILLED WITH CHRIST'S FULLNESS. 



349 



his presence and glory and power, how joyful, how 
peaceful we should be ! 

So we see how differently Christ in his Word 
recognizes and regards man's condition, and the 
means for his salvation, from that in which the 
various forms of philosophy regard him. These 
systems of philosophy deny his lost and fallen con- 
dition, or they think that man has resources within 
himself w*hich he can develop into saintliness and 
blessedness. For thousands of years they have 
labored on these lines, and, although baffled in every 
effort, and disappointed at every turn, yet, unwill- 
ing to recognize Christ's claims, his provisions and 
promises, they still press on, " forever seeking that 
which leaves them still behind." The experience 
of the world demonstrates that we can not develop 
a saint from a sinner; that man can not save him- 
self; that he has no power to comfort himself or 
others without Christ; that death is an unmitigated 
foe and the grave is wrapt in impenetrable, mid- 
night gloom, and eternity is a rayless, starless, 
hopeless condition if even we shall exist beyond 
the grave. 

But Christ comes among men and he recognizes 
and proclaims man's sinfulness, vileness, his need 
of a Savior, his hopelessness without one, and his 
exposure to eternal death. He does not once speak 
of developing man from himself, of any resources 
of help or strength or happiness within himself. 
He tells us man is "lost," "condemned," "a sin- 
ner," "dead to God" and eternal things, and that, 



350 



SERMONS. 



if left to himself, he will "perish." But, at the same 
time, he says: "I have come to seek and save that 
which is lost." "I have come that they may have 
life abundantly." " Come unto me all ye that labor 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 
"Whosoever believeth in me shall not perish, but 
have everlasting life." "He shall never die; he 
shall not see death." And " In my Father's house 
are many mansions." Here is his way of saving 
men. He offers himself to us, with all he is in 
himself, and all he has to give. And this just meets 
our conditions and satisfies our wants. Millions 
have tried Christ, and no one that ever tried him 
has failed to find in him a supply for all his wants. 
The testimony of countless millions is, "Jesus hath 
satisfied my soul." And this testimony has been 
borne all along the ages, and in every condition of 
human life. 

Blessed be God! I need not go to the world, 
nor to systems of vain philosophy, nor to pagan 
or popish systems, for in Christ is the fullness of 
supply for all my wants. But how may I be filled 
up with this fullness? Simply by believing him, 
trusting him, accepting him. This brings the soul 
into direct contact with Christ, into union and fel- 
lowship with him. It was by pride and unbelief 
that man lost God's fullness. Now Christ, by tak- 
ing upon him our nature and dying for us, has 
brought that fullness within our reach. Now unbe- 
lief is the great barrier which keeps this fullness 
from our souls. But when we trust in Christ alone 



FILLED WITH CHRIST'S FULLNESS. 351 



for salvation and the supply of all our wants, then 
the great ocean tides begin to flow into our souls, 
then 

"Everlasting life is won, 
Glory is on earth begun." 

The channel way to the eternal ocean is opened 
up, and long as it is kept open the hallowed billows 
will flow in with larger volume and with increasing 
bliss. The vessel into which it flows may be small, 
cracked, and leaky, but all it can hold it may have. 
And, be the vessel ever so small, it is filled up with 
the fullness of Jesus. Sometimes, too, it overflows, 
until, from the heart of the child of God, rivers of 
living water flow forth. Two things must deeply 
impress themselves upon us while we read this text 
in its connections: first, the contrast between the 
systems of " philosophy, traditions of men, and rudi- 
ments of the world," spoken of in verse 8, and 
Christ. The former are vain, empty, deceitful, un- 
satisfactory; the latter has "all the fullness of the 
Godhead." Roman and Grecian philosophy, Jewish 
traditions, worldly elements, can not meet the wants 
of the human soul, can not answer its questionings, 
can not satisfy its longings, but Christ, in whom all 
fullness dwells, he can satisfy. He can fill up its 
most expansive desires. He can answer its yearn- 
ings. The same is true of all systems of modern 
philosophy, of all papal mummeries, and all ritual- 
istic systems. Whoever seeks rest in them seeks it in 
vain. They are empty themselves. How, then, can 
they fill up the vast capacities of an immortal soul ? 



352 



SERMONS. 



O how the weary millions are striving to obtain 
satisfaction in these things! O what millions more 
are striving to satisfy themselves with the vain and 
deceitful idolatries of the world ! Would that they 
would come to Jesus, seek rest in him, and be filled 
with his fullness ! It is written in unmistakable 
characters over all these sources of philosophy, tra- 
dition, ritualism, worldly pleasures, " Whosoever 
drinketh of these waters shall thirst again. " But 
Christ, who giveth the living waters, has said: 
" Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give 
him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall 
give him shall be in him a well — a fountain — of 
water springing up into everlasting life." The great 
heart of the world has tried the former, and has 
said, as with one voice, " Vanity of vanities; all is 
vanity and vexation of spirit." Countless millions 
have tried Jesus Christ, and with one voice have 
said, in life and in death, 

"Jesus hath satisfied, Jesus is mine." 

Then, again, we are impressed with the proper 
rendering of the word " complete." How our trans- 
lators should have so rendered it as they have seems 
strange. But, stranger still, is the use which has 
been made of it by Antinomians and others. The 
revised version renders it, "And in him ye are made 
full." Alford renders it, "And ye are in him filled 
up." This is, doubtless, its real meaning. But the 
persons referred to have made it teach that, how- 
ever vile and sinful and incomplete the believer is in 



FILLED WITH CHRIST'S FULLNESS.' 353 



himself, yet he is by faith complete in Christ. That 
Christ throws a spotless robe over a polluted soul, 
and covers up with his righteousness our sins and 
corruptions. This is only whitening a sepulcher 
which is full of rottenness and dead men's bones. 
This is in direct antagonism with the most express 
teachings of Christ. His first work with man is to 
make him pure and good. Hence he says, "First 
make the tree good and the fruit will be good. 
Make the fountain sweet and the waters will be 
sweet." "Ye must be born again." This implies 
a radical change of the heart, and the impartation 
of a new divine life within. 

The Word of God in no instance encourages 
the hiding or covering up of our sins otherwise 
than by their- removal from the soul. If God's peo- 
ple sin, as they may, he visits them with his dis- 
pleasure; and in order to be restored to- his favor 
they must humble themselves, repent of their sins, 
and submit to his scourging. So Abraham suffered 
for his duplicity, Jacob for his trickery, Moses for 
his anger and presumption, and David for his adul- 
tery. They were not, they could not be, under the 
favor of God, complete in Christ, while guilty of 
these things. It is written as a warning to all who 
may sin who are the children of God. "The thing 
which David did displeased the JuordP And the 
judgments which came upon him, his family, and 
his kingdom, because of his adultery and murder, 
and the anguish and sorrow and deep penitence 
through w T hich he passed, are fully recorded. But 



354 



SERMONS. 



to teach that men can lie and swear and commit 
adultery, and do various other wicked things, while, 
at the same time, they are so covered up with the 
robe of Christ's righteousness, and so complete in 
him that they are well-pleasing to God, is not only 
a dangerous, but also a damning belief, and leads to 
the most fearful and fatal consequences. 

We had fondly hoped that Mr. Fletcher had 
slain, with his own sharp sword, this monster; but 
he has been showing some signs of life within a few 
years, and doing injury to some weak and ignorant 
souls. No ! no ! This is as foreign from the apos- 
tle's idea here as hell is from heaven. What he 
teaches is that believers are filled up with Christ, 
so that nothing contrary to him dwells in them. 
The vessel that is filled with pure water has no 
room for any foreign substances. " Sin has no more 
dominion over the believer." "He can not sin 
because he is born of God." "The blood of Jesus 
Christ cleanseth them," moment by moment, " from 
all sin." They are not saved in their sins nor out 
of their sins, but from their sins. Nothing could 
cast a deeper disgrace upon the Christian system, 
or the Christian name, than to teach that men can 
be, and do all the things referred to, and yet be 
owned and blessed and approved of God. No words 
can suitably express our utter abhorrence of such 
teachings. The soul that is filled up in Christ has 
no room for any thing else. Systems of philosophy 
and science, so far as they are true, are good enough 
in their place. A knowledge of all the facts of 



FILLED WITH CHRIST'S FULLNESS. 



355 



history, of all the literature of the world, of medi- 
cine, law, theology, of business in all its forms, may 
be had. But Christ only is '*all in all." 

Paul was versed in all Jewish literature and 
traditions; he had studied the Roman and Grecian 
philosophies and poetry and literature ; he had every 
thing to boast of in his lineage and in his education. 
But he says: "The things which were gain to me, 
those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, 
and I count all things but loss for the excellency 
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for 
whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and 
do count them but dung that I may win Christ." 
A beautiful illustration of this is furnished by the 
Mount of Transfiguration. There on that Mount 
were Peter, James, and John. There were Moses, 
the representative of the law, and Elijah, the repre- 
sentative of the prophets. There was the cloud of 
the divine glory overshadowing all. And, in the 
midst, the Divine, the transfigured Christ. The 
chosen three, amazed, dazzled, and overwhelmed by 
the divine glory, had fallen upon their faces. But 
"Jesus came and touched them and said: Be not 
afraid." And when they looked up, the cloud had 
departed. Moses and Elijah had returned to their 
heavenly home, " and }hey saw no man, bat Jesus 
only." So may it be with us. 

Let us see our privilege in Christ and rise to 

embrace it. Let us open our hearts to admit Christ 

and Christ only. Let us not go empty when we 

may be filled with Christ's fullness. Let us not be 

31 



356 



SERMONS. 



dwarfs when we should be giants. Let us not suf- 
fer ourselves to be deceived and cheated by the 
world or self or sin or Satan. But now, this day, 
this hour, this moment open our hearts and let the 
living Christ come in. Let us live and die, saying, 

"Other knowledge I disdain 

' Tis all but vanity; 
Christ, the Lamb of God, was slain, 

He tasted death for me. 
Me to save from endless woe 

The sin-atoning victim died; 
Only Jesus will I know, 

And Jesus crucified." 



THE BLOOD-WASHED THRONG. 357 



XX. 

THE BLOOD-WASHED THRONG. 

Text: " And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, 
What are these which are arrayed in white robes f And ivhence 
came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou Jcnowest. And he 
said unto me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, 
and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of 
the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve 
him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the 
throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, 
neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor 
any heat. For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, 
shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of 
waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. 11 — 
Eevelation vii, 13-17. 

Rapt in the visions of God, the revelator saw 
this white-robed multitude, countless in its num- 
bers, waving its palms, shouting " salvation to God 
and the Lamb," while the angels, and the elders, and 
the living ones, fell prostrate before the throne and 
responded, Amen. As he stood bewildered, gazing 
at this vast throng, and wondering who and what 
they were, one of the elders, seeing his wonder- 
ment, inquired of him, " What are these arrayed in 
white robes, and whence came they?" To this, he 
could only respond, "Thou knowest," "I do not 
know." Then he was informed as to their char- 
acter, previous state, and preparation for their 



358 



SERMONS. 



present abode. The whole account presents to us 
a blessed vision of the heavenly world, the character 
of its inhabitants, and the bliss which they enjoy. 
It would seem as if the everlasting gateway of that 
heavenly city were opened for a little while, so that 
we can look in upon the glory of the heavenly 
home of God's saints. The heaven of the Bible is 
not a fiction, nor a dream of the fancy, nor a mere 
speculation; but a grand, sublime, and glorious 
reality. Who can tell how cheering, inspiring, 
and enrapturing this vision has been to countless 
millions on the earth, who have been toiling and 
longing for the saints' everlasting rest ? And as we 
stand to-day, gazing upon this wonderful scene, and 
listening to its inspired interpretation, we long to 
rise and join that glorious throng, to mingle in its 
songs and participate in its joys. We, too, want to 
know who they are, how they reached their pres- 
ent abode, and what is the character and source 
of their bliss. 

Who are these white-robed ones? We answer, 
They are saved sinners. The fact of their sins is 
acknowledged in the fact that they had " washed 
their robes in the blood of the Lamb." If they 
had not been sinners, there would have been no 
necessity for this. The fact of redemption is based 
upon the fact of sin. This shows us clearly that 
these persons were not before the throne because 
they were naturally pure, and good, and holy. If 
they had been so, heaven would have been opened 
to them without blood; and they could never have 



THE BLOOD-WASHED THRONG. 359 



sung the song of salvation to God and the Lamb. 
Even our little children, dying in infancy and early 
childhood, are not saved because they are innocent, 
undepraved, and holy; but because they are in- 
cluded in the rich provisions of redemption, and 
without any condition performed on their part, are 
saved eternally in heaven. But these persons had, 
probably, been sinners of every grade, guilty, im- 
pure, condemned. They had also been dwellers in 
a world of sin, subjected to temptations, perplex- 
ities, annoyances, liability to fall. Now all this is 
encouraging to us, conscious as we are of our sins 
and guilt, our temptations and follies, our ignorance 
and unworthiness. If they tvere saved eternally, so 
we may be. But the question arises: 

How were they saved? This was not simply be- 
cause the blood of the Lamb was shed for sinners. 
If this were all then the world would be saved. 
But, while the fact is clearly presented to us that 
it was shed for sinners, and that all may be saved 
through its atoning and cleansing power, yet 
something further is necessary. No man is, or can 
be, saved unless he is willing so to be. And this will- 
ingness involves a hearty acceptance of the terms 
on which this salvation is offered. Unless it is 
voluntarily accepted on these conditions, it will 
never be enjoyed. How the pious heathen are 
saved, we may not fully know. As they have never 
heard of Christ, they can not be condemned because 
of the willful rejection of him. But, if they follow 
the light which the Divine Spirit sheds upon 



360 



SERMONS. 



their minds and hearts, God in his infinite mercy, 
through the rich provisions of redemption, will, 
doubtless, save them in his heavenly kingdom. 

But no intelligent adult person, who has heard 
or who might have heard of Christ and his salva- 
tion, is saved merely because he died for sinners. 
Nor are they feaved because they are sinners, and 
their condition is such as to call for the pity and 
compassion of the heavenly Father. Nor are they 
saved in their sins, with all their habits of ungodli- 
ness, all the effects of their sins, all their procliv- 
ities to evil still clinging to them. So it is said of 
these persons, u They washed their robes and made 
them white in the blood of the Lamb." That 
is, they availed themselves of the merits of that 
blood, secured its benefits by faith, were actually 
w r ashed from their sins, were both justified and 
sanctified through the blood, and thus became fitted 
for this divine abode. It will avail nothing to the 
sinner that Christ has died, has shed his blood for 
him, so long as he rejects him, neglects his salva- 
tion, or does not appropriate his merits to his soul. 
He will be just as surely and just as eternally 
damned, if he does this, as if Christ had never died. 
Yea, his guilt and condemnation will be infinitely 
increased, because he might have been saved, but 
would not be. But the moment a sinner, no mat- 
ter what his sins and guilt may be, comes to Christ 
and w r ashes his robes, his heart, his soul in his blood 
by faith, he is cleansed, the work of cleansing is 
begun, and he is " accepted in the beloved." 



THE BL OD- WASHED THE ONG. 361 



The words employed, " Washed their robes," sig- 
nify an on-going, a life-long process. The refer- 
ences are deeply interesting. So Peter speaks, Acts 
xv, 9, of both Jews and Gentiles who believed that 
God was "purifying their hearts by faith." So John 
says, " The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth 
us from all sin." So Paul says, " Christ loved the 
Church, and gave himself for it, that he might 
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by 
the word." So it is not merely by the one act of faith, 
but by repeated acts that this work is accomplished ; 
not the work of a day, a week, a month, a year, 
but the work of a life-time. This faith, the instru- 
ment in the application of the blood, becomes the 
habit of the soul, the result of a constant conscious- 
ness of need, and the constant consciousness of 
supply. So Wesley sang: 

" Every moment, Lord, I need, 
The merits of thy death." 

Here is the felt need of the soul. And then again: 

" Every moment, Lord, I have 
The merits of thy death." 

This is the assurance of the supply of our need. 
Thus living and thus believing, the soul stands in a- 
state of constant preparation for glory. 

It was thus that every one of this countless 
multitude was saved. There is no reference here 
to purgatorial fires, to a second probation, to re- 
demption from the sufferings and torments of hell, 
to the effective operation, and salutary benefits of 



362 



SERMONS. 



punishment, or to any merit or good works or right- 
eousness of our own. These things are not so much 
as mentioned here or anywhere in the Word of God 
as the means or merit of our salvation. It is not, 
further, because they were connected with this or 
that Church organization, or believed in this or that 
formula of doctrine, or worshiped in this or that 
mode. Not one of them gives thanks to God that 
he was a Methodist or Presbyterian or Baptist or 
Episcopalian or Lutheran; not one who shouts 
because he was baptized by immersion, or that only 
a few drops fell on his brow; not one who thanks 
God he always prayed with a book, or one who 
praises him because he never used one. All these 
things may have their real, or fancied importance 
magnified here, but they are nothing worth in that 
heavenly world. There is only one thing referred 
to in heaven as the meritorious cause of a sinner's 
salvation, and that is, u the blood of the Lamb" 

The earthly condition of these persons had been 
one of great trial. "They come up through the 
great tribulation." This word "tribulation" comes 
from the Latin word tribula, which signifies a 
machine, or instrument, for threshing grain. And 
the idea here and elsewhere is, that just as the straw 
and chaff were separated from the grain by this 
threshing process, so God's people are separated 
from their worldly-mindedness, pride, errors, and 
follies by the persecutions, afflictions, trials, and 
sorrows of this life. So that, while it is true for- 
ever, that the Christian is only meritoriously saved 



THE BLOOD-WASHED THRONG. 



363 



by the blood of Christ, yet he is disciplined, 
matured and perfected by these tribulations of life. 
This, in the very nature of things, is a hard, severe, 
and painful process. But this is God's method. 
There is no Christian without temptation, sorrow, 
trial, and scourging. " Whom the Lord loveth he 
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he re- 
ceiveth." He chastens us not for his pleasure. It 
is not to gratify him that his people are, and have 
been, so severely persecuted by all the malice and 
rage of men and devils; that they are often sorrow- 
ful, and the tears flowing down their faces; that 
they are so sorely tempted and buffeted by the 
adversary of their souls ; that they are so often poor 
and needy and in hunger and thirst. True, he sees 
it all. He knows it all. And he could prevent it 
all if he in his infinite wisdom thought best so to 
do. But he has a purpose in view, a design to 
accomplish, and this is the method he has chosen. 
That purpose is, " that we may be partakers of his 
holiness." He wants to magnify in us the riches of 
his grace, to show its all-sufficiency and its sanctify- 
ing power. Paul had a thorn in his flesh, a trouble- 
some thing whatever it was, and thrice he prayed 
for its removal. But the prayer was not answered, 
as he desired, but more effectually answered when 
the Lord said to him, " My grace is sufficient for 
thee." Jesus left this legacy to his disciples, "In 
the world ye shall have tribulation : but be of good 
cheer; I have overcome the world." Again he said 
to them : " Ye shall weep and lament, but the world 



364 



SERMONS. 



shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your 
sorrow shall be turned into joy. And ye now there- 
fore have sorrow, but I will see you again, and 
your heart shall rejoice and your joy no man taketh 
from you." What is thus so distinctly foretold has 
been the actual experience of God's saints in all 
the ages, and will continue to be so until the end 
of time. 

A mistaken idea has been entertained by many, 
that because they are poor, afflicted, sorrowful, and 
distressed in this world, therefore they must be 
saved and blessed in the world to come. But trib- 
ulation does not save any one; it is only one of 
the factors in the work of our preparation for 
heaven. It is character at which God looks. It is 
not the poverty or the persecution or the trial or 
the sorrow in itself, but what it does for us in con- 
nection with the blood of the Lamb. Many who 
are poor and sorrowful, are also vile and sinful; 
guilty often of the most outbreaking sins, or rebel- 
lious in their spirit, and refusing to accept Jesus 
Christ. No, we may be poor in this world and 
poor in eternity; we may have sorrow here, and 
then go to the world where there is " weeping and 
gnashing of teeth." But, if we are the Lord's, if 
we are " washing our robes and making them white 
in the blood of the Lamb," then sorrow and perse- 
cution and temptation will only be fitting and pre- 
paring us the better for the eternal joy of our Lord. 
O who can tell what the saints owe to God's dis- 
cipline of sorrow, persecution, and suffering? Ruth- 



THE BLOOD- WASHED THRONG. 365 



erford says: "O how much I owe to my Lord's 
hammer and saw and file !" These "fiery trials" 
burn off our bonds and purify us from our dross; 
these sorrows prepare us for eternal joys; "these 
light afflictions, which are but for a moment, are 
working for us a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory." 

This tribulation probably refers to the whole 
sum of the afflictions and trials of God's saints upon 
the earth. Hence it is called emphatically the great 
tribulation; not because of any specific period, as 
in the case of the Smyrnians, who were to "have 
tribulation ten days" (or years), but to the whole 
period of trial, now regarded as past, through which 
they have come. And who that has read the whole 
history of God's Church upon the earth can doubt 
that their tribulation has been great? Indeed, so 
fierce and terrible has it often been that it is a 
wonder his Church has not been swept from the 
earth. But the cup of this tribulation is not yet 
full; the sum of the suffering has not yet been 
endured. Before the coming of the Lord and the 
fullness of this vision is realized there will be yet 
a great tribulation, a sea of blood, mayhap, which 
the saints must pass through. But the same blood 
which has saved them in the past, and saves them 
now, will save them still. And the same grace 
which has not only enabled them to endure the 
tribulation, but also to glory in it, will be sufficient 
for them still. 

There can be no doubt that much of the bliss 



366 



SERMONS. 



of that world of glory will arise from the review of 
these trials and sorrows, and the victories realized 
over them. It is only, also, the victors who can 
have palms; it is only conquerors who can wear 
crowns. And the victor's palms and conqueror's 
crowns all tell of strife, of conflict, of tribulation, 
triumphantly passed through. O, great Head of the 
Church, help us to endure, to glory in tribulation, 
and to obtain our crowns. 

Let us now turn to look at the present state 
and position of these blood -washed worshipers. 
" They are before the throne of God." " They are 
in his temple. 7 ' And it is a matter worthy of note 
that they stand nearer to the throne than the angels, 
the elders, or the living ones. So we read in Rev- 
elation vii, 9-11: " After this I beheld, and, lo ! a 
great multitude, which no man could number, of all 
nations and kindreds, and people and tongues, stood 
before the throne and before the Lamb clothed 
with white robes and palms in their hands, and 
cried with a loud voice, Salvation to our God 
which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb. 
And all the angels stood round about the throne and 
the elders and the four living ones, and fell before 
the throne on their faces and worshiped God." The 
blessedness, glory, and joy of redeemed sinners are 
greater than that which the angels experience. And 
no wonder. One who has been restored to health 
after long sickness enjoys health and vigor better 
than one who has never been sick. One who has 
long been a wanderer, an exile from home, has a 



THE BLOOD-WASHED THRONG. 



367 



higher appreciation of home-comforts than one who 
has always enjoyed them. The Prodigal Son, no 
doubt, enjoyed his fathers smile, the bounteous re- 
past, and the cheery welcome of home better than 
the son who had always remained at home. So the 
redeemed and glorified, who had been fallen beings, 
sinners of every grade, wanderers from God, stand- 
ing on helPs burning brink, headsick and heartsick 
on account of sin, aliens from God, strangers to the 
covenants of promise, but who had been forgiven, 
washed in. the blood of the Lamb, arrayed in pure, 
spotless robes, diademed and glorified, have higher 
joys, more abundant bliss than the angels can have. 
Our poet has caught the idea when he sings — 

" Who are these arrayed in white, 
Brighter than the noonday sun? 
Foremost of the sons of light, 
Nearest the eternal throne? 

Out of great distress they came, 
"Washed their robes by faith below, 

In the "blood of yonder Lamh, 
Blood that washes white as snow. 

Therefore are they next the throne, 
Serve their Maker day and night; 

God resides among his own, 
God doth in his saints delight. " 

"We know not where that throne or temple is, 
nor does this matter ; whether in the sun, as Dr. 
Dick supposes, or in one of the fixed stars, or in 
Alcyone, the central sun of the universe, or in this 
earth when purified and transformed ; but, wherever 
it is, that is heaven. We need not concern ourselves 



368 



SEEMONS. 



about the locality. Heaven is where Christ and his 

redeemed and glorified ones are. 

We are also called upon to behold their minis- 
tries in the temple of God. "They serve him day 
and night in his temple." They sing his praises 
evermore. They commemorate his wondrous works 
in creation, and his wondrous love in redemption. 
Their song is the " new song w of " salvation to our 
God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the 
Lamb." "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to 
receive power and riches and wisdom and strength 
and honor and glory and blessing." And the uni- 
verse responds with its loud "Amen." "Thou art 
worthy, for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to 
God by thy blood, out of every kindred and tongue 
and people and nation, and hast made us unto 
our God kings and priests; and he shall reign on the 
earth." And they all sing. They sing, also, "with 
a loud voice." " It is like the voice of a great mul- 
titude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the 
voice of mighty thunderingrs." It is also like "the 
voice of harpers harping with their harps." So 
they praise God, and these are the burdens of their 
song day and night. It is a mistaken idea that 
many have, that heaven is a place of endless rest 
No, rather it is a place of endless activities. All 
the angels are employed in constant ministries in 
this world, in heaven, and in the universe of God. 
What those ministries are we may not fully know. 
We know that, so far as this world is concerned, 
"they are all ministering spirits, sent forth to min- 



THE BLOOD-WASHED THRONG. 369 



ister to them who are the heirs of salvation." And 
what is true of the angels is doubtless true of the 
glorified. 

We are not to imagine that our work for God 
ceases when we leave this world. No, there will be 
something for us to do in heaven besides worshiping 
God in his temple. Every redeemed spirit will 
have his appropriate work or service. What it will 
be we know not. But, whatever it is, it will be 
performed without weariness, without anxiety or 
care, without sorrow or sighing. O, it is these 
thoughts which reconcile us when a dear, useful 
saint, a young minister in the midst of his useful- 
ness, like Summerfield or Cookman, and many 
others,- or some missionary in the foreign field, just 
as he seemed prepared for work, is removed from 
earth. We feel and say, " They are cut off in the 
midst of their labors and usefulness." But, if we 
knew all, we should see that God has some impor- 
tant work for them to do in the higher ministries 
of the heavenly world. They go right on working, 
just as they go right on praising God. Everlasting 
life means everlasting activity and service, as well 
as everlasting joy. And that service will not only 
be performed without weariness or fatigue, but also 
without the imperfections or weaknesses or disabil- 
ities under which we labor in this world. Our 
songs of praise will be perfect songs; our service 
will be perfect service. There will be no discord 
in the one, or mistakes in the other. 

Again, they shall be eternally exempted from 



370 



SERMONS. 



all the trials, the sufferings, and the sorrows of this 
present life-time. "They shall hunger no more, 
neither thirst any more ; neither shall the sun light 
on them, nor any heat." We have not failed to 
discover that when the inspired writers endeavor 
to tell us what heaven is, that they do it in a neg- 
ative form, and show us how directly opposite it is 
to our experiences in this world. Here we hunger 
and thirst; here the sun smites by day and the 
moon by night; here there are tears and death, and 
sorrow and crying, and pain; here the night settles 
down upon us with its gloomy shadows, its perils 
and dangers; and here we are weary, tired, and 
worn. But there, hunger and thirst are unknown; 
there no exhausting heat is experienced, there " all 
tears are wiped away from their eyes ; and there 
shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, 
neither shall there be any more pain ; for the former 
things are passed away." "There is no night 
there; and the city has no need of the sun, neither 
of the moon to shine upon it ; nor of any candle ; 
for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb 
is the light thereof." 

"No sorrow now hangs clouding on their brow; 
No bloodless malady impairs their face ; 
No age drops on their hairs his silver snow ; 

No nakedness their bodies doth embase : 
No poverty themselves and theirs disgrace ; 
No fear of death the joy of life devours ; 
No unchaste sleep their precious time deflowers ; 
No loss, no grief, no change, wait on their winged hours." 

— Giles Fletcher, 1588-1623. 



THE BLOOD-WASHED THRONG. 



371 



While we are in this world we seem to be 
nothing but a mass of wants. They press upon us 
from every quarter, and are of every description. 
Our whole life-time is employed in endeavoring to 
secure a supply for them. The great struggle with 
the masses is for bread— food, clothing, and shelter. 
A large majority of the people of God are now and 
always have been poor. Many a saint of God, of 
whom the world was not worthy, has wanted for 
bread for himself and family. Many a saint has 
never owned a foot of ground, until he has occu- 
pied a grave. But the weary toil and the sweated 
brow will be no more experienced when the saint 
reaches his heavenly home. It is thought that the 
words, " Neither shall the sun light on them, nor 
any heat " (" o xauawv, the sirocco, which word is used 
by Isaiah xlix, 10, from whence this whole sentence 
is taken" — Alford), have reference to the persecu- 
tions which the saints have endured. And so we 
understand that there will be no more persecutions 
from the world and Satan; no more stakes, or 
gibbets, or dungeons, or racks, or exile, or confisca- 
tion of goods, or beatings with rods, or cruel words, 
or scoffs, or scorns, or sneers, or cruelties of any 
kind. The roar of the Numidian lion, heard so 
often in the Roman amphiteater, the crackling of 
flames, the blood-stained rack, the clanking of 
chains, the instruments of torture, employed by 
pagan and by papal Rome, will be seen and heard 
no more. 

This is one of the great mysteries of divine 
32 



372 



SERMOXS. 



providence, why the good, the pure, the holy of 
this world have been permitted to be the butt of 
the world's ridicule, the victims of its malice and 
rage. But so it has been in the past, and so it is 
now. Let a man set himself up against the spirit, 
maxims, and practices of the world, and he will be 
branded as a fanatic, a madman, or a fool ; and his 
hated presence will be disposed of in some way, and 
as speedily as possible. But - the scowling frown, 
the scornful lip, the leering laugh, and the consum- 
ing flames, are all over in that world to which the 
saint of God is hastening, and where he will rest 
forever. Furthermore, this is a world of sorrow, 
a vale of tears. And these glorified saints had 
their share of them evidently. Many are the occa- 
sions for tears in this world. Persecutions, be- 
reavements, afflictions, poverty, the sins and wick- 
edness of our fellow-men are all causes of sorrow. 
So true is it — 

" The path of sorrow, and that path alone, 
Leads to the world where sorrow is unknown. " 

"But God shall wipe away every tear from their 
eyes." So Isaiah said, centuries ago. " He will 
swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God 
will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the 
rebuke of his people shall he take away from off 
all the earth : for the Lord hath spoken it." So in 
chap, xxi, 4, in this book, " God shall wipe away 
all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no 
more sorrow nor crying." The literal rendering 



THE BLOOD-WASHED THRONG. 373 



here is, " He shall wipe out all tears." The very 
fountains of tears shall be exhausted; their sources 
will be dried up forever. There will be no more 
sin in heaven, and so there will be no more sorrow. 

This is a description of heaven which Burns, 
the poet, said, " he could never read, from a child, 
without tears." But the blessedness of that heav- 
enly home is not merely spoken of in a negative 
form ; it is, also, presented to us positively, or as to 
what it is. Hence it is said, " He that sitteth on 
the throne shall dwell among them," or " shall spread 
his habitation over them" This promise had been 
shadowed to the people of God in all the ages. 
Away back in Leviticus we read, " And I will set 
my tabernacle among you ; and I will walk among 
you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my 
people," xxvi, 11, 12. So also, in Isaiah, "And 
the Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of 
Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and 
smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by 
night: for upon all the glory shall be a defense. 
And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in 
the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge 
and for a covert from storm and from rain," iv, 
5, 6. Ezekiel also caught a glimpse of this glory, 
" My tabernacle also shall be with them ; yea, I 
will be their God, and they shall be my people. 
And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do 
sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the 
midst of them for evermore." But now John sees 
the blessed fulfillment, as " a great voice out of 



374 



SERMONS. 



heaven proclaims, Behold, the tabernacle of God 
is with men, and he will dwell with them, and 
they shall be his people, and God himself shall be 
with them, and be their God." The vision is now 
complete, the saints are gathered home, and God 
spreads his tabernacle, his habitation, over them. 
Here is the double blessedness of his presence and 
his protection against all evil. We know not, we 
can not tell, what all this means. Yet we do know 
even here and now, when his presence is revealed 
to us, amid all our unpleasant and unfavorable sur- 
roundings, that the place, no matter how or where 
it is, is like a little heaven below. But, O, what 
must it be where God dwells among his people, 
and spreads his tabernacle over them for evermore ! 
Yes, that is heaven, all the heaven which the holy 
and the good desire. 

Finally, the text presents to us the perfect and 
exhaustless bliss of these saints. " The Lamb which is 
in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and 
shall lead them unto living fountains of waters." 
These expressions refer to the eternal sources of 
their bliss. The Hebrews called a spring, a fount- 
ain, living waters, because they are continually boil- 
ing up and running over. As used here, it pre- 
sents before us an eternal and exhaustless supply. 
He who has God the Father and the Lamb for 
the source of his bliss, will never know any want. 
These fountains of bliss will bubble up and flow on 
forever. They are the sources of " the river of the 
water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from 



THJE BLOOD-WASHED THRONG. 375 



under the throne of God and the Lamb." The 
countless multitudes shall partake of these fountains 
forever; but through all the eternities there shall 
be no diminution, no lack of supply. They flow 
from the eternal God, the Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost, and they can not fail. The figure not only 
shows their exhaustlessness, but also their abund- 
ance — not like the Summer brook, whose bed is 
often dry; not like the wadys in the desert, filled 
only when it rains, or when mountain snows are 
melting; not like a failing fountain, where the 
thirsty traveler seeks in vain for the cooling 
draught ; but a full and an abundant, and eternal 
supply. No wonder the Psalmist has said, "In 
thy presence is fullness of joy ; and at thy right 
hand there are pleasures forevermore." God is the 
boundless sea of bliss, and he that dwells in God 
partakes of his abundant and eternal joy. We have 
no words to express this abundance of bliss; the 
vocabulary of earth is soon exhausted in endeavor- 
ing to describe it. . 

But not only does this beautiful figure show the 
exhaustlessness and the abundance of this bliss, but 
also its infinite variety. It is not a single fountain 
from which they drink, but "fountains of living 
water." Well does Dr. A. Clarke say: "There will 
be no sameness, and consequently no cloying with 
the perpetual enjoyment of the same things; every 
moment will open a new source of pleasure, instruc- 
tion, and improvement; they shall make an eternal 
progression into the fullness of God. And as God 



376 



SERMONS. 



is infinite, so his attributes are infinite, and through- 
out infinity more and more of these attributes will 
be discovered, and the discovery of each will be a 
new fountain or source of pleasure and enjoyment. 
These sources must be opening through all eternity, 
and yet, through all eternity, there will still remain, 
in the absolute perfection of the Godhead, an infin- 
ity of them to be opened. This is one of the finest 
images in the Bible." 

As the saints are "before the throne," this will 
be to them a place of vision, where all that is now 
mysterious or unknown will be forever evolving 
before their wondering eyes. The deep mysteries 
of nature, the origin of materialism, the processes 
of creation, the wisdom, goodness, and power of 
God as exhibited in its successive stages, the rela- 
tions of our little globe to the vast universe, of 
which it is an insignificant part, will be ever open- 
ing up new sources of pleasure. So with the greater 
mysteries of redemption, the origin of the plan, the 
development of it to intelligent beings, in heaven 
and in earth, its vast extent, more so than our poor 
human minds ever yet conceived of, its wonderful 
designs, its eternity of provision, will be unfolded 
with ever-increasing glory, and as each new devel- 
opment is made, new fountains of bliss will be 
opened and new songs will arise of praise and glory 
to the Redeemer. And the wonderful works and 
ways of Providence, now so often dark and myste- 
rious, which we can not fathom or explain or find 
out, will then be unraveled before us, and at every 



THE BLOOD-WASHED THRONG. 



377 



step and stage of their unfolding higher wonder will 
rise, new joys will be imparted, and new delights 
will ravish the soul. And so, forever and ever, as 
God reveals himself in his works of creation, prov- 
idence, and redemption, these fountains of bliss will 
be opening up on every hand. So that it will be 
infinite bliss multiplied by infinite bliss. 

" Millions of years my wondering eyes 
Shall o'er his beauties rove, 
And endless ages I'll adore 
The wonders of his love." 

Let me close by saying — 

1. The Word of God knoics of only one way to 
heaven. That is through "the blood of the Lamb." 
It was not the tribulation of these saints that saved 
them, as we have already seen, nor their self- 
righteousness nor their creeds nor their forms of 
worship nor their merits or good works, but it was 
because they had "washed their robes and made 
them white in the blood of the Lamb." Hence the 
forcefulness of the word "therefore" in the fifteenth 
verse: "Therefore are they in his presence before 
the throne of God, and serve him day and night in 
his temple." O we may go to heaven without 
wealth, without worldly honor or fame, without 
social position, and without friends ; but we can not 
go there without the blood of Christ. But, if washed 
in that blood, we can go up with Lazarus from the 
rich man's gate, with the sheep-skin and goat-skin 
clad followers of the Lord, from the dens and caves 
of the mountains; we can ascend thither from gar- 



378 



SERMONS, 



ret or cellar, from beds of down or pallets of straw, 
from palaces or from dungeons, from mansions or 
cabins. 

2. No matter how great sinners we are, or may- 
have been, through this blood, we may stand at last 
white-robed and crowned before the throne. The 
fact of our sins is no insuperable barrier in this 
world in the way of our salvation. It is not their 
multitude, nor their aggravated character, nor their 
heinousness, which will occasion our eternal con- 
demnation; but, if we should ever be lost, it will 
be because we would not be saved. If we will only 
come to Christ and trust him and follow him Ave 
shall be saved, both now and for evermore. There 
is no limit to the power of Christ to save. There 
is no limit to the power of his blood to cleanse. 
O, if sinners and Christians, too, would only see 
this, and come and grasp their privilege, how won- 
drously they would realize its truth ! And what a 
thought this is ! I may be saved ! I may be a 
white-robed, glorified saint ! I may wave palms of 
victory before the throne! I may be companioned 
with angels ! I may be with God and the Lamb 
forever and ever ! The thought of this, the mere 
mention of its possibility, should inspire and enrap- 
ture our hearts. 

When Napoleon the first would cross the Alps 
with his army into Italy he called his chief of 
engineers and asked, "Is the route practicable?" 
The answer was : " It is barely possible to pass." 
Napoleon replied : " Let us move forward then." O, 



THE BLOOD-WASHED THRONG. 379 



as Jesus had made the road to heaven practicable, 
as he has made " the new and living way through 
his blood," and has so made it possible for us, let us 
move forward! We may have to go through great 
tribulation, we may have to encounter great ob- 
stacles, we may have many a conflict, many a strug- 
gle. But still let us say and sing as we move 
forward : 

" Blest seats, through rude and stormy scenes, 
We onward press to you." 

33 



SOME OF THE TEXTS REFERRED TO IN THIS VOLUME. 



Exodus. 

Page. 

xxviii, 4-30 289 

Leviticus, 
xxvi, 1-12 373 

Isaiah. 

i, 18 280 

iv, 5, 6 214, 373 

vi, 9, 10 250 

xxv, 8 372 

xlix, 10 370 

li, 9 61, 170 

Ezekiel. 

xxxvi, 25 .281 

xxxvii, 27, 28 373 

Hosea. 

xiii, 14 133 

Luke. 

i. 73-75 212 

xix, 41, 42 250 

John. 

i, 18 127 

iii, 16 128 

iv, 14 269 

vi, 40 128 

xi. 25 133 

xvi, 20 21, 363, 364 

xv, 13 258 

xvii, 18-21 54 

380 



Acts. 

Page. 

xv, 9 260 

xx, 24 262 

xxvi, 18 312 

Romans. 

iv, 3-5 230 

viii, 3, 4 288 

viii, 33-39 301 

viii, 28 212 

xiv, 78 239 

1 Corinthians. 

vi, 6-9 280 

xv, 24, 25 .295, 296 

xv, 55. 57 133 

xvi, 22 123 

2 Corinthians. 

iv, 6 150 

xii, 10 166 

Galatians. 

ii, 20 239 

Ephesians. 

i, 4 212 

v, 25 28 

Philippians. 

iii, 8 2-55 

Colossians. 

iii, 11 283 

2 Thessalonians. 

ii, 13-63 212 



2 Timothy. 

• « Page - 
l, 9 212 

i, 12 213 

ii, 11, 12 .251 

Hebrews. 

ii, 14 307 

ix, 16-22 71 

ix, 12 288 

ix, 26 291 

x, 12 292 

x, 9 62 

xi, 37 256 

James. 

iv, 4 123 

i Peter. 

i, 2 212, 213 

i John. 

i, 9..... 128 

ii, 2 288 

v, 3, 4 306 

Jude. 

24 581 

Revelation. 

i, 18, 19 287 

iii, 20 306 

v, 6 288 

vii, 9-11 366 

xii, 10, 11 114, 298 

xxi, 3 374 



INDEX TO SERMONS. 



A 

Page. 

Adorna, Catherine 371 

/Esthetic culture . 172 

Agencies of redemption 217-18 

Alford— distinction between re- 
generation and sauctification. 

83. Poetry 227 

Alexander the Great and his 

courtiers 153 

Apelles 158 

Amiuius and iEsehylus 290 

Amen to God 204 

Aquinas, Thomas, 15-67, and 

the monks 167 

Alcyoue 367 

Antiuomianism 352 

B 

Blood-washed throng 357-78 

Backsliders— not sanctified in this 

condition 82 

Battery, galvanic 94 

Bacchus, feast of 262 

Beecher, H. W 77 

Being saved — illustration 152 

Beautiful robes — what ? 170. How 
put on, 176. Make Church at- 
tractive to angels and men 176 

Beautiful, every thing belonging 

to Christian character 171 

Beauty, spirit of everywhere 172 

Beethoven 275 

Biographical literature of the 

Methodist Episcopal Church 26 

Blind man in no condition to un- 
derstand colors 295 

Blood, the, and the testimony, 
298-317. Sacred value of, 69. 
An atonement, 70. Of Divine 
Being, 76. Of martyrs and he- 
roes 78 

Brooks, Phillips— the candle of the 
Lord 101 



Page. 

Bringing in, as well as bringing 

out 182 

Burns, Robert 373 

Butler's Analogy 202 

Bunyan's Beulah Land 183 

C 

Canaan, only remotely type of 
heaven ; nearly of perfect love, 
183-4. Soon conquered after Is- 
rael had entered in 191 

Called to be saints 7-28 

Cannibals 202 

Caleb and Canaan 185-192 

Castelar— religion of power and 

love 64 

Church must be spiritual in order 
to be powerful, 268-271. Re- 
sources of, wardrobe of heaven 
at its disposal, 161. Not awake 
to duty and responsibility, 162. 

Insensible and indifferent 163 

Christ's death, sacrifice or suicide, 
73-4. Ideal of his Church, 210- 
228. His love for it, 216. Can it 
be realized? 219. A living Christ, 
287. Pledged for our full re- 
demption 135 

Chapman, Dr 311 

Christlieb, 103-249 

Clarke, Dr. A 114-375-6 

Contrast between worldling and 

Christian 261-276 

Constantine 304 

Climax in 2 Peter 1-4 

Consecration — what ? 29-53. Per- 
petual, illustrated by marital 
vows, 40. Consecrated body, 
what conditions, 44. Makes 

life beautiful 51 

Cost of Solomon's Temple 30 

Commands of God, implied prom- 
ises 23 

381 



382 



INDEX TO SERMONS. 



Page. 

Cookman, Alfred, 369. The mil- 
lennium 120 

Cowper— contrast between peas- 
ant and Voltaire, 46. " When 
such a man," etc 94 

Creature love not forbidden, but 
enjoined 112 

Crosby, Dr.— condition of Church.. 164 

D 

Death to sin . 237 

Death — his weapons and work, 

302-3. How is he " ours?" 325 

Debtor and payment of his debt... 233 

D'Aubigne 274 

Development — not a saint from 

a sinner 349 

Disciples, regenerate when Christ 

prayed for them 57-8 

Disciples at Pentecost 174-5 

Dick's Philosophy 367 

Dragon, the 299-300 

Dutf, Dr. — extract from letter 154 

Dusterdick on cleansing of the 
blood as distinct from regener- 
ation 53 

£ 

Ebrard, comments of, on word 
" cleanseth " 83 

Ecce Homo — holiness not rare in 
Christian countries 9 

Edison 178 

Ethnic religions sanguineous 71 

F 

Faith and full redemption, 136-7. 

Only condition of soul-rest 184-5 

" Fire if you dare'' 139 

Fenelon * 15 

Faber — U I worship thee,sweet Will 

of God" 208-9 

Festus and Paul 258 

Fichte 252 

Filled with the fullness of 

God 335-56 

Flechiere, John de la 348 

Foster, Bishop — Christian Pu- 
rity 188 

Fulton, Robert 177 

Franklin 177 

Fullness of salvation 346 



Page. 

Full redemption, 125. For whom ? 
127. Processes of 137 

G 

Gifts of the Spirit extraordinary, 
91. Which abide in the 

Church 92 

Giles Fletcher, poetry 138 

God never compromises 37 

Glory of the Lord — what? 143. 
How revealed, 143. Works to 
Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, 

Angels, Stephen 145 

Gideon, sword of Lord and 175 

Gethsemanes, our 205 

Glorious Church 213 

Gracious ability in every soul 240 

Gregory the Great 99 

Griffith, Mr., of Caernarvon, 

Wales 105 

Greek Slave and Powers 41 

Growth in saintliness not so much 
matter of time as faith 18 

H 

Halleluiah chorus 331-2 

Handel and his Messiah, 41, and 

Haydn 275 

Heart of the Andes and Church 41 

Habits of ungodliness 282 

Havergal, Frances Ridley, 

80, 81, 93, 94, 200, 202. 

Hans Sachs 274 

Hellgate, destruction of rocks of... 106 
Hodge, Dr. Charles — theology... 56, 59 
Holy Spirit, power of, 89-90. Re- 
lation to redemption, 136. Only 
can lift veil from soul, 150. His 

transformations in nature 154-5 

Humboldt's Cosmos 172 

Human sacrifices, when abolished 

in Roman Empire 72 

Huss and Jerome 256 

Hymnology of Methodism 26 

I 

Idolatry— what ? 112 

Intoxicants 21-64-5 

J v 

Jacob, angel wrestling with 
him 174 



INDEX TO SERMONS. 383 



Page. 



Jay's exercises 174 

Jehoshaphfit and his army going 

forth to battle with songs.... 175 

Jerome and Huss at Council of 

Constance 256 

Job, when God spoke to him out 

of the whirlwind 21 

Justin Martyr and the heathen 

prefect 310 

K 

Krummacher and the blood 75 

Kossuth 78 

Keats 172 

Kings and priests 315-334 

Lr 

Labarum of Constantine 305 

Laodicean Church 164 

Law of love universal 109 

Lange's Commentary on word 

"Cleanseth" 83 

Lee at Appomattox 35 

Lecky — philosophy can not re- 
generate 16 

Leonardo da Vinci 158 

"Lean on nothin' and he's 

thar" 194 

Little boy born blind 260 

Longevity promoted by entire 

consecration 44 

Loss, of children, 205. Prop- 
erty 206 

Look — various kinds of looking ; 
power of 151 



Love and faith, 108. Source of all 
willing and acceptable obedi- 
ence, 110. Of God — reasonable, 
115. Perfect,grand ideal of Chris- 
tian life, 116. Not with an 
angel's powers, or seraph's, or 
great saint's, thy heart, 118. 



Love is eternal 119 

Luther, Martin—battle hymn, 

273, 274, 306 

M 

Madame Guyon 15 

Madame De Stael 69-70 

Man, how transformed 151 

Macbeth — blood stains 80 

McCheyne — sermons 293 



Page. 

Macaulay's essays 259 

Max MU Her— Science of Religion... 7 

Marquis De Renty 15 

Margaret, duchess of Alencon 15 

McClintock on centenary of 

American Methodism 25-26 

McDonald— Life and Writings of 

St. John 55 

Machinery of the Church 103 

Martyrology of the Church 285 

Martyrs, witnesses 96 

Martyr asked if he did not love 

his wife and children 113 

Master and his slave 194 

Mediatorship of Christ 278 

Metamorphosis 152 

Michael Angelo, 158. Angel in 

the block 220-3 

Ministers of Methodist Episcopal 
Church pledged to seek and ex- 
pect perfect love, 26. Must be 

holy men 65 

Ministers who will draw 101 

Mind — what embraces 114 

Mind of Christ— what 257 

Miser, the 154 

Miracles, power to work — how 
lost to the Church, 92. Will 
that power be restored? 92. 



Miracles — tolling of bell of 

universe 92 

Minucius Felix— no Christians in 

prisons 9 

Montgomery — poetry 17 

Moses and giving of the law 141 

Morse and electric telegraphy 178 

Moral insanity— what ? 263-4 

Mozart 275 

Moslem, what has done to be 
thought of as a holy man 15 



Motley-Dutch Republic-how our 
Dutch forefathers were pre- 
vented from speaking of Christ.. 310 



Music, of the temple, 272. Of 
Christian Church 275 

N 

Napoleon First crossing the 

Alps, 378. And the soldier 193 

Natural and spiritual man 245-60 

Natural man under control of 
animal soul 247 



384 



INDEX TO SERMONS. 



Page. 

Neander 327 

Nero and Paul 256 

Not to believe we are or have 
what we are not and have 
not 231 

O 

Obedience test of love 121 

Oratio Sacerdotalis 54 

Oratorios of Creation, Elijah, Mes- 
siah, etc 275 

Opium eaters and smokers 

saved 282 

Overcome 299 

P 

Palmer, Mrs. Phcebe 333 

Paper mill 214 

Pauline Epistles — speak of 

blood 74-5 

Paul aud Festus 255 

Peace, fullness of 347 

Personality of God's great com- 
mand 118 

Peter, before and after receiving 

baptism of the Holy Ghost 90 

Perfect love, 108-125. Law of — 
what comprehends, 112. How 

. realized and enjoyed 117 

Philosophy, Roman, Grecian, 

modern 351 

Photography, illustrations 151-2 

Pliny — Roman Governor 273-4 

Prayer, why heard - and an- 
swered 291 

Priests not mediating power 326-7 

Priests under old and new dis- 
pensation 

Power of the. Holy Ghost, 88-108. 
Of a holy life, 94. How ob- 
tained, 104. Character of, 91. 

Fullness of 347 

Power over all the power of the 
enemy, Frances Ridley Haver- 
gal 94 

Power unappropriated in na- 
ture — steam, electricity 177 

Powers, the artist 158 

Prophes3 T ing — what? 97 

Praxiteles 158 

Prisoner and his relense 233 

Process of transformation 152-3 



Page. 

Procession of the saints 19 

Provisions, amplitude of 76 

Prudentius 300 

Priesthood of Christ 278 

Q 

Question settled forever 52 

R 

Redemption in Christ, what 

comprehends * 132 

Rest of faith, 179-194. What ? 180. 
Not by works, 186. Why many 
do not enter in, 188-9. Influ- 
ence of this upon the ungodly... 190 
Remaining corruptions cause no 
condemnation while struggling 

against them 81-2 

Religion and morals embraced in 

idea of the living God 115 

Religion of the present day 10 

Revolutionary fathers 78 

Receipt for holiness 229-45 

Reckoning, basis of 230 

Re nan 252 

Righteousness in Christ — compre- 
hensiveness of word 129-130 

Roman Empire 304 

Roman Senate and statue of 

Jesus .-. 304 

Romanists' efforts to gain holi- 
ness 14-15 

Robertson, F., sermons 249-50-263 

Rutherford, letters 344, 348, 365 

Ruskin — how sapphires, opals, 

and diamonds are made 155-6 

Rustic in art gallery 246 

S 

Sacrifices— what / 328-9 

Saint, meaning of 9-10 

Saintliness, degrees of, 17-18. 

More saintly, more useful 24 

Sanctified through the truth 54-68 

Sanctify, meaning of word 55-6 

Sanctification in Christ 130 

Sanguineous religion — objections 

of "Liberal Christians " 77 

Self — must go down 39 

Schaff, Dr., on John xv, 3 

Scientists and free-religionists and 

Christian experience 253 



INDEX TO SERMONS. 



385 



Page. 

Seveufold value of blood of Christ.. 79 
Sin, what has done to our bodies, 
43. Has its pleasures, 47. What 
we have lost by it, 121. Va- 
rious kinds of 79 

Singing Church 271-5 

Soul signifies our animal life, 113. 
As distinguished from the heart 

and mind 

Songs of the ages and who sung 

them 272-3 

South, Dr., sermons 116 

Standard of justification not 

lowered to exalt heart purity 84 

St. Peter's and Michael Augelo 41 

Storrs, Dr. R. S., address on semi- 
millennial of Wicliffe and his Bi- 
ble 149 

Spurgeon,sermons,extract from.. 182-3 
Strength and beauty, 160-179. 

How put on 166 

Submission to the Divine Will 199 

Spiritual nature dominant in un- 

f alien man 247 

Straws 252 

Stephen and the Sanhedrin 256 

Steele, Dr 262-3 

Summerfield 369 

T 

Test of sanctification 57 

Tertullian, apology of, 9, 309. 

Holiness of early Christians 

Theology, Methodist, written from 

stand-point of perfect love 25 

Thomas a Kempis 66-192 

Thorwaldsen 153 

Thorn in the flesh 363 

Triumph over persecution 98 

Transfiguration, Mount of 355 

Transforming vision 141-159 

Tyerman's Life of Wesley 92 

Tyndall and prayer test 252 

U 

Unbelief — what troubles it 
brought to Israel, 186. What 



Page. 

trouble and danger it brings to 
us 187 

Unity of Church realized in ho- 
liness 64 

Understand spiritual things — 
must become spiritual 259 

Usefulness result of entire conse- 
cration 48 

Uttermost, meaning of word 278 

Uttermost salvation 277, 297 

V 

Veil on mind of Jew 142 

Vision of the glory of the Lord, 
146. Moses, Isaiah, Daniel, 147. 
Which all believers may en- 
joy — history of incarnation — 
miraculous works, 147-8. Mount 
of Transfiguration, 148. The 
cross of Calvary, 148-9. All in 

the Word — panorama 150 

Vision — four things essential — 
object — light — reflection— power 
of vision 149 

W 

Warren, Dr. , introduction to the- 
ology 25 

Watt and steam-power 177 

Weakness and helplessness of 

Church 165 

Wesley and humility 181 

Will of God done in earth and 
heaven, 195-210. How angels 
do it, 197. How it may be done 
upon the earth joyfully — Fran- 
ces Kidley Havergal, 200. 
Paul, 200. Brings more glory 
to God than a universe of un- 
thinking matter, 201. God does 
not will all men to be happy, 
202. God's will the best, 203. 
We want our own will, hence 

our troubles 204 

Wine, symbol of Gospel bless- 
ings , 263 



V 



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